Duncan Scott (swimmer)


Duncan William MacNaughton Scott is a British swimmer representing Great Britain at the FINA World Aquatics Championships and the Olympic Games, and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. An all-rounder in the pool, Scott has swum internationally in 100 and 200 metres freestyle and butterly, and 200 metres individual medley. He has won two golds at the World Championships in 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay, a gold in the 4 x 100 metre medley relay, as well as silvers at the World Championships and Olympics in freestyle and medley relay. Individually, Scott was the 100 metre freestyle champion at the 2015 European Games and 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the 200 metre freestyle champion at the same European Games and the 2018 European Aquatics Championships.
Winning three gold medals in the at the 2015 European Games, he was the most successful British athlete at the Games. A month later, he formed part of the Great Britain squad that won the gold medal at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in the men's 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay as the 4th leg swimmer in the heat. In 2016, he was a member of the Great Britain team that won silver in the final of the same event at the Olympic Games as well as the men's 4 x 100 metre medley relay. The same team also won the 4 x 100 metre medley relay silver in the 2017 World Championships. A noted relay swimmer, Scott broke the individual British 200 metre freestyle record leading off in the men's 4 x 200 metre relay, before anchoring the team that won gold in 4 x 100 metre medley relay at the 2019 World Championships.
Scott is a member of the London Roar team, competing in Season 2 of the International Swimming League. The ISL is an annual professional swimming league featuring a team-based competition format with fast paced race sessions. 10 teams featuring the world’s best swimmers will compete for the ISL title in 2020.

Early life

Duncan grew up in Alloa, moving to Strathallan School on a sport scholarship at the beginning of secondary. He trained daily throughout his high school years. Swimming runs in the family as his older sister Alex was the Woman's swimming captain at the University of Dundee and the president of its Sports Union.

Career

Scott came to public attention when he won eight gold medals at the 2013 Scottish Age Group Championships in Edinburgh. Later that year he competed at the 2013 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival taking gold in the 200 m medley, silvers in the and bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle.
In July 2014, at the 2014 European Junior Championships, Scott won a gold medal in the and bronze in the 4 × 200 m freestyle. A few weeks later he won a silver medal in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay with Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He then competed at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing taking gold in the 4 × 100 m freestyle.
At the inaugural 2015 European Games in Baku, he won three gold medals in the and three silver medals in the 4 × 200 m freestyle, 4 × 100 m mixed freestyle, and 4 × 100 m medley.

2016

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, he won a silver in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay with Stephen Milne, James Guy, and Dan Wallace. He also won another silver in the 4 × 100 m medley relay with Chris Walker-Hebborn, James Guy and Adam Peaty. He was placed 5th in the final of the individual men's 100 metres freestyle.

2017

In the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. He won gold in the 4 × 200 m freestyle with James Guy, Stephen Milne and Nick Grainger in a time of seven minutes 1.70 seconds. He won a further silver in the 4 × 100 m medley relay at the World Championship with same Olympic line-up of Walker-Hebborn, Guy and Peaty.

2018

At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Scott won gold in the 100 metre freestyle in a time of 48.02 seconds. He also won four bronze medals at the Games: in the 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 4 × 100 m freestyle relay, and 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, and became the first Scottish athlete to win five medals at the same Commonwealth Games. He added a sixth medal when he won silver in the 200m individual medley.
At the 2018 European Championships, Scott won a silver in the 100 metre freestyle. Later the same day he won gold as part of the relay team in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay with Calum Jarvis, Thomas Dean and James Guy. He also won gold in the 200 metre freestyle, despite only having just made the final in 8th place. He added a third gold in the final day of the championships, winning the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay as part of the British team with Adam Peaty, James Guy and Nicholas Pyle.
On 13 September he was named Scottish Sportsperson of the Year at the Team Scotland Scottish Sports Awards.

2019

At the 2019 World Aquatics Championships held in Gwangju, South Korea, Scott came joint fourth in the 200 m freestyle, but the first-placed finisher Danas Rapšys was disqualified for a false start, and Scott was awarded a bronze medal together with Martin Malyutin. At the medal ceremony, Scott refused to shake hands or share the podium with the gold medallist Sun Yang, who had previously been banned for a drug offence in 2014 for three months and was involved in an ongoing doping case controversy, which resulted in angry scenes at the ceremony. This followed a similar act a few days previously by Australian Mack Horton, who labelled Sun a "drug cheat". Both Yang and Scott were given official warnings from FINA; Scott was subjected to death threats from Sun's fans on social media.
In the lead-off leg in the men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay final, Scott broke the British national record with a time of 1:44:91; the team finished fifth in the race. In the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay together with Adam Peaty, James Guy and Luke Greenbank, he swam the anchor leg in 46.14 seconds, the second fastest freestyle relay split of all time, and the fastest in textile. He managed to overcome a 1.11 second deficit to finish in front of the United States team, thereby winning Britain's first gold medal in the event in the World Championships in a European record time of three minutes, 28.10 seconds.