Corrie Scott was the baby of the Scottish swimming team when she made her Commonwealth Games debut in 2010 but almost eight years later, she admits the feeling very much like the mum of the team despite being only 24.
The breaststroker is on the verge of going to her third Commonwealth Games having been selected for Team Scotland for Gold Coast 2018 a couple of months ago and despite her wealth of experience, Scott remains just as excited for this Games as she was in 2010, particularly since she came away from Glasgow 2014 with a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke and so goes into Gold Coast with lofty expectations.
“It’s a very exciting time – I’ve absolutely loved my two Commonwealth Games experiences so I can’t wait to get to Gold Coast," she said. "Going in with a medal from Glasgow means there’s a little bit more pressure but also, I’m at the point where I’m really enjoying my sport and I just want to go there and see what happens – hopefully I can get on the podium but all I can do is do my best, I can’t control what anyone else does. I think the prospect of winning a medal makes it even more exciting because I know how amazing Glasgow was, how much I loved it and how great it was to be on the podium and to see the Scottish flag being raised and so I’m going into Gold Coast hoping to better that and hoping to better that experience.”
Loading article content
Scott is still four years younger than the veteran of the team, Hannah Miley, but she admits to feeling a sense of responsibility towards the younger members of the squad, some of whom are almost a decade younger than her. The more experienced swimmers in Team Scotland took Scott under their wing at the Delhi Games and she wants to do the same this time around to her young compatriots.
“The sport has given me so much and I want to give something back so I always try to help the young ones as much as I can," she said. "I watched Hannah and Caitlin McClatchey in Melbourne in 2006 - they were my idols and then I started swimming with them and it was amazing. I’ve learned so much from them and so hopefully I’m passing that onto the young ones now. It's good that we’ve got some young ones in the team although it is really weird because in 2010, I was the baby and now I feel like the mum."
Scott's life has been hectic over the past year – her masters degree in Chemistry at Edinburgh University involved a placement at a pharmaceutical company which saw her having to combine a 40-hour working week with her training schedule. However, having finished her placement in August, she has taken a year out of university in order to concentrate fully on he swimming and while the change of pace took some time to get used to, she is now relishing being a full-time athlete.
“When in was on placement, I had absolutely no time to myself whereas as soon as I finished, I had all the time in the world to myself because I was just doing swimming,” she said. “At the start, I was getting bored – I was just watching Netflix but now, I’m doing a bit of yoga and I’m trying to keep my head busy because I think that’s something you need to do. I don’t want to be running around crazy like I was last year but in terms of my head, I want to keep it busy otherwise you start overthinking everything and I don’t want to get into that.”
Scott will be one of only six females in the 21-strong swimming team for Gold Coast but she is well used to being in a male-dominated environment as she is the only female swimmer in her training group at Edinburgh University. There is no shortage of ribbing but it is that kind of environment that keeps her relaxed as the pressure of the Commonwealth Games builds.
“I train with 11 boys so every day I’m fighting to show that I can do anything they can do," she said. "In training, the thing that the boys love to do is just constantly take the mickey out of me. And I rise to it every time. But I enjoy it – it’s a fun training environment and I know they respect me. They all prod at me and I go mad but that helps and when the pressure is on, it’s about trying to have as much fun as possible."