\n<\/p>\n
Scott was 22 at the time. A young man, but one with the belief that comes from being places, doing things, and winning medals.<\/p>\n
The Rio Olympics three years previously had yielded a couple of relay silvers. World team medals followed the year after. Then he returned from the 2018 Commonwealth Games with sixth different slabs of metal around his neck.<\/p>\n
The Covid delay to his second Olympics only deferred more success, with 4x200m freestyle gold accompanied by silver in the 4×100 medley.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more pertinently, silver also came in individual events, Scott finishing second in both the 200m freestyle and the 200m individual medley.<\/p>\n
He will complete in the same two events again in Paris, as well as in a couple of the relays, but it seems there is something different about this version of Scott.<\/p>\n
Look at interviews with him at the time of Tokyo and there’s still a shyness. His voice is softer. His answers fleeting. His gaze rarely held for long.<\/p>\n
Contrast that to now. Still quiet, but forthright. Confident enough to take on difficult topics, such as gender issues in sport, the importance of learning to swim, and pool closures.<\/p>\n
And self-assured, too. Earlier this month, he stopped a BBC interview part way though to check on a disturbance at the other end of the room. It spoke to his professionalism, his attention to detail and his discipline.<\/p>\n
Talk to those who train with him at the University of Stirling and those words are among the few they let slip. Under the condition of anonymity, of course.<\/p>\n
One describes Scott as “the hardest worker I’ve ever seen”. Another considers him “enigmatic, a great guy but one who changes when he goes into competition mode”. A third speaks about how he “demands standards and leads by example”.<\/p>\n
Fellow Team GB member Katie Shanahan picks up on the latter, explaining there is not a training day that goes by when she doesn’t learn something from Scott.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m so grateful I can swim with him every day,” she says. “He\u2019s given us so much good advice and I know how much work he puts in.”<\/p>\n
Yeah, but what is he really <\/i>like?<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s\u2026 just Duncan. I don\u2019t know how to describe him,” the relentlessly chatty Shanahan says, stuttering. “I\u2019m lucky that I get to see the human side of him, and he\u2019s just a really nice guy. He\u2019s funny, and very down to earth.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n