Duncan Scott has built his reputation on winning multiple medals at an event. Four at the 2021 Olympics and six at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, to add to a host of others already in his trophy cabinet, has seen him become one of both Scotland and GB’s most decorated athletes of all time.
However, the World Championships, which begin in four weeks in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, will be a different experience for Scott.
Rather than his typical, jam-packed schedule, Scott will be competing in just one individual event – the 200m individual medley. It is a change that just might, admits Scott, be helpful to his performance.
“I’m really excited to try out just one individual event,” he says. “At Commies or Olympics, I’m swimming 10-plus times in a week so it’ll be interesting to see how I fare doing just the one event.
“Will I feel fresher than doing loads of events? This might be the new way for me, you never know.”
However excited Scott may be about his reduced schedule in the individual events, it has not come about on purpose. His below-par performance in April’s British Championships, which doubled as the trials for the World Championships, meant he failed to gain selection in a lot of the events in which he has previously excelled on the world stage.
In particular, the 200m freestyle, in which he won Olympic silver in 2021, will see Tom Dean and Matt Richards represent GB and while the 26-year-old from Stirling was not planning on watching one of his specialist events from the sidelines, there may be positive consequences of missing selection this year, particularly with the 2024 Olympic Games only 12 months away.
“At the start of the season, I didn’t want to not swim the 200m free,” he says. “But in GB, we’ve got such good depth that you’ve got to be at your very best at trials. I fell short of that.
“I’ve not lost any ambition in the 200m free at all, though and, if anything, it’s made me hungrier because I want to get back in there. That’s the beauty of the 200m free in Britain – people are fighting hard for places.”
Despite his modest individual schedule in Fukuoka, Scott will still have plenty of opportunities to add to his major championship medal count, which stands at 39. He will, in all likelihood, be involved in the 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100 mixed freestyle relays and, given the strength of British swimming, you would not bet against Scott and his GB team-mates claiming silverware in all three of those events.
“The 4x200m relay team especially is going to be special so I’m looking forward to being a part of that,” he says. “The relays will keep my schedule full and these Worlds are going to be an exciting and a unique experience for me.”
