Duncan William MacNaughton ScottMBE (born 6 May 1997) is a Scottish swimmer representing Great Britain at the FINA World Aquatics Championships, LEN European Aquatics Championships, European Games and the Olympic Games, and Scotland at the Commonwealth Games. Scott made history after winning four medals - more than any other British athlete at a single Olympic Games - in Tokyo 2020, simultaneously becoming Great Britain's most decorated swimmer in Olympic history.[2][3] With an additional gold and silver medal in Paris 2024 bringing his total to eight, Scott became Scotland's most-decorated Olympian (surpassing Chris Hoy), and is currently tied with Bradley Wiggins as the second most-decorated Olympian in British history. Scott is the only athlete in the top three to still be actively competing, and the only member of the top four (Hoy, Scott, Wiggins and Jason Kenny) who is not a track cyclist.
An all-rounder in the pool, Scott has swum internationally in 100 and 200 metres freestyle and butterfly, and 200 metres individual medley. He has won gold at the Olympics, three golds at the World Championships in 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay, a World Championship gold in the men's 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. He is an Olympic silver medalist in the individual 200 metres freestyle and 200 metres individual medley, and a World silver medalist in the 200 metres individual medley.
Winning three gold medals in the (100 m and 200 m freestyle, and 4 × 100 m freestyle relay) at the 2015 European Games,[4] he was the most successful British athlete at the Games.[4] 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.[5] 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. His anchor splits in a number of global relays are among the fastest in history - as of 2024, Scott has both the second fastest 100 metre freestyle anchor leg in history, and the third fastest 200 metre freestyle anchor leg.
Early life
Duncan Scott grew up in Alloa,[6][7] moving to Strathallan School on a sport scholarship at the beginning of secondary. He trained daily throughout his high school years.[8]
Career
Scott came to public attention when he won eight gold medals at the 2013 Scottish Age Group Championships in Edinburgh.[9] Later that year he competed at the 2013 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival taking gold in the 200 m medley, silvers in the (400 m medley, 4 × 100 m mixed freestyle) and bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle.
In July 2014, at the 2014 European Junior Championships, Scott won a gold medal in the (200 m individual medley, 4 × 100 m freestyle) 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.[10] He then competed at the 2014 Youth Olympics in Nanjing taking gold in the 4 × 100 m freestyle (with Luke Greenbank, Miles Munro, and Martyn Walton).
At the inaugural 2015 European Games in Baku (a junior event for swimmers), he won three gold medals in the (100 m freestyle, 200 m freestyle and 4 × 100 m freestyle relay) and three silver medals in the 4 × 200 m freestyle, 4 × 100 m mixed freestyle, and 4 × 100 m medley (with Greenbank, Charlie Attwood, and Walton).[11]
On 13 September he was named Scottish Sportsperson of the Year at the Team Scotland Scottish Sports Awards.[22]
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.[23] After the medal ceremony, Scott refused to shake hands and take pictures with the gold medallist Sun Yang, who had previously been banned for a trimetazidine drug offence in 2014 for three months and was involved in an ongoing doping case controversy.[1][24] This transpired following Australian Mack Horton's refusal to share a podium with Sun at the medal ceremony when the Chinese national anthem was played.[1] Both Sun and Scott were given official warnings from FINA; Scott was subjected to death threats from Sun's fans on social media.[25][26]
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,[27] 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.[28]
2020
Scott competed for London Roar during the 2020 International Swim League once again and during the tournament in Budapest he set a new British Record in the 200 Individual Medley [29] and broke the British Record for the 200m freestyle twice, a week apart from each other. [30]
Based on his 2019 individual world championship result, Scott was pre-selected for the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[31]
2021
Scott and his haul of medals from the Tokyo Olympics
At the 2021 British Championships, Scott set a new British Record of 1:55:90 in the 200IM,[37] then went onto equal his existing British Record in the 100m Freestyle and finished off with a new British Record in the 200m Freestyle with a time of 1:44:47. [38]
A month later in May 2021, the LEN European Aquatics Championships saw Scott win Gold in the mixed 4×100 free relay and men’s 4×100 medley relay; He also achieved Silver medals in the 200m freestyle, men’s 4x 100 freestyle relay and men’s 4×200 freestyle relay. [39]
He won gold in the men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay and silver in the men’s medley relay which set a new European record of 3:27.51. He also took silver in the individual 200m freestyle and 200 IM where he set a new British Record of 1:55.28. These achievements made him Great Britain’s most decorated athlete in any sport at one Olympic Games and Great Britain’s most decorated Olympic swimmer ever. [40]
Once again Scott made history at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. He amassed 2 gold medals in his signature 200m freestyle and 200m IM in addition to 4 bronze medals, making him Scotland’s most decorated athlete ever in the Commonwealth Games. [59]
On the second day of swimming competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, held in Birmingham, England in July and August, Scott swam a 1:47.16 in the preliminaries of the 200 metre freestyle, qualifying for the final ranking second.[60] Later in the morning, he ranked seventh in the preliminaries of the 400 metre individual medley, swimming a time of 4:20.92 to qualify for the final.[61] In the final of the 200 metre freestyle, he won the gold medal with a time of 1:45.02.[62][63][64] He followed his gold medal up with a bronze medal in the 400 metre individual medley with a time of 4:11.27.[63][64][65] The following day, Scott ranked third in the preliminaries of the 200 metre butterfly and advanced to the final with his time of 1:57.48.[66] In his second event of the morning, the 100 metre freestyle, he qualified for the semifinals.[67] For the evening finals session, he started off with a fifth-place finish in the 200 metre butterfly in a time of 1:56.89.[68][69] Less than an hour later, he ranked sixth in the semifinals of the 100 metre freestyle with a 48.78 and qualified for the final.[70]
In the final of the 100 metre freestyle on day four, Scott finished in a time of 48.27 seconds and won the bronze medal.[71][72] Later in the session, he won a bronze medal in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay, splitting a 1:44.48 for the fourth leg of the relay to help finish in 7:09.33.[72][73] His relay bronze medal marked his eleventh total medal at the Commonwealth Games and he became the most decorated Scottish competitor across all Commonwealth Games, breaking the former record of ten total medals set by shooter Alister Allan in 1994.[72][74] Two days later, on the sixth and final day, he qualified for the final of the 200 metre individual medley along with fellow Scotsman Mark Szaranek, ranking third with a time of 2:00.41.[75][76] In the final, he won the gold medal with a Games record time of 1:56.88.[77][78] For his final event of the Games, he split a 51.74 for the butterfly leg of the 4×100 metre medley relay in the final to help win the bronze medal with a Scottish record time of 3:35.11.[78][79]
2022 Swimming World Cup At his first FINA Swimming World Cup, the 2022 FINA Swimming World Cup stop held in November in Indianapolis, United States, Scott placed eighth in the 400 metre freestyle with a 3:45.35 on day one, twelfth in the 200 metre individual medley with a time of 1:58.50 on day two, tenth in the 400 metre individual medley on day three with a 4:12.98, and fifteenth in the 200 metre freestyle with a 1:44.80, also on day three.[80]
2023
2024
Scott won the 200 metres medley at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships sealing his place at the 2024 Summer Olympics. At the Olympics he came in 4th in the 200 metre freestyle event with a time of 1:44.87.[81] Scott was in the final of the Men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay together with James Guy, Tom Dean, and Matt Richards, the same four quartet who won in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics. They won the relay with a time of six minutes and 59.43 seconds, and became the first team to have successfully defended an Olympic swimming relay title with the same four swimmers.[82] They are also the first British team to have defended an Olympic relay title in swimming or athletics.[83] This was also Scott's seventh Olympic medal, which made him Britain's 3rd most decorated Olympian.[84]
Legend: CR – Commonwealth record;NR – Scottish record; Records not set in finals: h – heat;sf – semifinal;r – relay 1st leg;rh – relay heat 1st leg;b – B final;† – en route to final mark;tt – time trial
Legend: CR – Commonwealth record;NR – Scottish record; Records not set in finals: h – heat;sf – semifinal;r – relay 1st leg;rh – relay heat 1st leg;b – B final;† – en route to final mark;tt – time trial
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