Duncan Scott isn’t, he admits, quite as spritely in the mornings as he once was.
Over a decade of pushing your body to its absolute limit can do that to a person.
But despite being a little creakier getting out of bed these days, Scott remains one of Scotland’s highest-performing athletes.
The swimmer has already cemented his place in Scottish sporting history books. The 29-year-old is Scotland’s most decorated Olympian ever with eight Olympic medals, including two gold. And with 49 major championship medals to his name, there’s few of Scott’s compatriots who can boast a similar haul.
Scott is far from done with accumulating medals, though.
The Alloa native spearheads Scotland’s 25-strong swimming squad for the Glasgow 2026, with the swimming events taking place at Tollcross International Swimming Centre, and Scott is aiming to hit the half century of major medals
Scott is a seasoned campaigner at the Commonwealth Games, with this his fourth time representing Team Scotland. He made his first Commonwealth Games appearance as a 17-year-old at Glasgow 2014 and he admits he can scarcely believe his Games debut was twelve years ago. Although the stiffness and soreness he feels each morning is a reminder that he’s been in this game longer than most.
Much has changed since he broke onto the scene as a fresh-faced teenager but primarily, it’s his attitude that’s altered, for the better, in his opinion.
“It is odd to look back to my first Commonwealth Games 12 years ago,” he says.
“As I've got older, I do need a little bit more time in the morning to get ready but a big difference now compared to when I was younger is, back then, I didn’t really see swimming as my job whereas now, it's very much it's my job, my lifestyle and also I know I have only a finite amount of time left that I'm still going to be able to do this.
"So there’ll be certain sessions where I'm not particularly motivated but there's countdowns going on in my head and things I want to try and achieve before I retire and I'll be thinking of those when I'm training. So I'm never short of motivation, but those early mornings don't get any easier.”
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What has not changed for Scott, though, is his desire to win medals.
Having won his first Commonwealth Games silverware on his debut in 2014 - he was part of the 4x200m freestyle relay squad that won silver - he’s added 12 more Commonwealth medals to his tally, including three golds. And it’s the goal of winning a few more golds at Glasgow 2026 that’s been driving him on in recent months.
“There’s the two events that I won at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (the 200m freestyle and the 200m medley) so I'll be looking to try and repeat those results, that’d be nice,” he says.
“It’d be cool to defend those titles and we've got a few exciting relays, as well.”
Scott has been a long-time member of the University of Stirling’s lauded swimming programme, with some of his stiffest challenges for medals at Glasgow 2026 coming from his fellow Stirling swimmers who are representing the other home nations.
The most notable inter-Stirling rivalry is between Scott and Englishman, Tom Dean, who pipped Scott to Olympic 200m freestyle gold at Tokyo 2020. The pair have been two of the planet’s best freestyle and individual medley swimmers for quite some time and having begun training together in Stirling last summer, they’re now teammates as well as rivals.
Toss into the mix Northern Irishman, Jack McMillan, who Scott reveals regularly beats both him and Dean in training, and Glasgow 2026 could produce some tantalising racing.
Scott dismisses any suggestion there’s a fierce rivalry between himself and any of his Stirling teammates though and, instead, is just grateful to be a part of such a high-level training squad.
“Things are going well for me and I'm just quietly working away in Stirling, which is nice,” he says.
“The training group we've got is pretty remarkable - we’ve got such an array of talent and it keeps me on my toes because I really need to be on it every day.
“The change of coach just about a year ago (from Steven Tigg to Ben Higson) was probably required and I'm really enjoying that. And also, I’ve bright in the 200m fly which has been a change of stimulus that I'm really enjoying as well.”
Glasgow 2026 is the start of a busy few weeks for Scott. Almost immediately after the conclusion of this Commonwealth Games, Scott and many of his teammates head to the European Championships in Paris. And while adding to the seven European long course titles he already has under his belt would be welcomed, Scott is in little doubt as to where his priorities lie this summer.
“There's not long between the Commonwealth Games and the Europeans - only about 10 days or so, so it’s a quick turnaround,” he says.
“But, to be totally honest, this summer I'm prioritising the Commonwealth Games.
“It's a home Commonwealth Games, so that’s a huge deal for me, so that's the one I'll prioritise and then I'll head to the Europeans and see how I can do there.”
