'Honoured' Duncan Scott never thought he would get to close to Hoy's medal count

Duncan Scott never imagined he would ever get close to Chris Hoy’s medal count after overtaking the cyclist as Scotland’s most decorated Olympian.

His heroics in Paris saw the swimmer return home with a gold and a silver to add to his collection to take his total to eight medals.

That means he has one more than Hoy who won a total of seven, including six golds, between 2000 and 2012.

He also moved level with Sir Bradley Wiggins and only Sir Jason Kenny has more among British athletes.

Speaking to STV Sport, Scott said: “He (Hoy) will have a little bit to say with the number of golds he has won for sure, and rightfully so as well.

“I’m always going for gold but I just happen to come second every time.

“It’s not something I ever thought I would get close to growing up watching the Olympics, but to have that many now is a great honour.”

The 27-year-old was in Stirling on Wednesday to support swimming lessons and encourage more youngsters into the pool but he will quickly turn his attention to what comes next and trying to keep up with French sensation Leon Marchand.

He said: “There is so much left in the sport that I haven’t done, so I will quickly get back to the drawing board and looking at Leon to see how much better than me is he in every aspect and what can I improve on or what I could have done better.

“There is so much that I can get better at and I find that quite exciting.”

He is now hopeful the performances of Team GB in Paris can help encourage the next generation of potential medal winners.

He said: “What has just happened at the Olympic Games is a real positive, so can we act quickly on that and get as many looking at trying a new sport and thinking ‘can we get into swimming’.”

Duncan Scott is part of an athlete ChangeMaker initiative, a partnership between The National Lottery’s operator Allwyn, Team GB, ParalymicsGB and UK Sport to support athletes who want to help social impact projects they are passionate about – whether it is grassroots sport projects, sustainability and physical wellbeing or LGBTQIA+ inclusion.