Duncan Scott, the dark horse of British Swimming

There is a storm brewing at the University of Stirling. Many may be familiar with Duncan Scott, 2 time silver medalist at Rio 2016. But few may appreciate the rate at which he is pushing forwards and improving swim by swim. Born on May 6th 1997 and aged just 20 years old so he’s not going anywhere anytime soon…

Breakout year

2013 was his breakout year where he represented Great Britain at the European Youth  Olympic festival winning won 4 medals. Gold in the 200m medley, silver in the 400m medley and 4x100m mixed freestyle relay and bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay. All at the tender age of 16!

First senior international

At the 2015 Fina World Championships in Kazan, Scott was the youngest member of Team GB. He aided the team on the way to winning gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay breaking the USA’s 5 year winning streak at the championships. 

Olympic Debut

Rio 2016 was where he made his Olympic debut, in which he came away with two silver medals. These were achieved in the 4x200m freestyle relay and the 4x100m medley relay. Scott was the first British male in 48 years to make the olympic final in the 100m freestyle in which he placed 4th.

What is most impressive about Scott is his depth. He can compete in a range of events and post some incredible times. Much noise has been made about Katie Ledecky’s ability to swim a 200m up to 1500m and compete with the best in the world if not destroy them. Whilst this is very impressive she does not have this dominance in the lower distances (50m and 100m). Scott however, does. At the BUCS 2017 Championships on the first night he went to swim the 1500 SCM freestyle and swam in a respectable time of 15:14.78, although not a world leading time it is extremely quick given how different it is to his Olympic final event the 100m freestyle. 

The next day in the 4x50 SCM freestyle relay he posted a phenomenal 21.10 with a ‘mediocre’ take over split. Whilst these times may not currently be the top in the world, given the volume of races he swam over the 3 day competition in heavy training is very impressive! Not many swimmers can swim a time like that in the 1500m and then the next day post a world class time in the 50m too, not to mention swimming multiple other disciplines too. 

Duncan Scott over the coming year could begin to challenge the likes of his British teammate James Guy in the fly and free events and become a force to be reckoned with in world swimming. With his strong medley background, who knows, could he be Great Britain’s answer to the Olympic legend Michael Phelps?

Any thoughts? Comment below!