Duncan Scott Ties 1908 Athlete As Most Decorated British Olympic Swimmer

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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Day 6 finals was an exciting session for the nation of Great Britain, as both Duncan Scott and Luke Greenbank landed on the podium in their respective events of the 200m IM and 200m back.

For Scott, heading into the 200m IM final the 24-year-old University of Stirling star had already collected gold as a member of GBR’s men’s 4x200m freestyle relay and doubled up with a silver in the 200m free individual event.

In this 200m IM, Scott bided his time in the fly and backstroke legs before changing gears in the breaststroke and then sealing up silver on the freestyle leg. Ultimately he hit the wall in a time of 1:55.28, just .28 shy of Chinese swimmer Wang Shun’s gold medal-worthy 1:55.00.

Scott’s time represented a huge lifetime best, knocking .62 off of his previous British record logged at the British Olympic Swimming Trials this past April.

With his 3rd medal now in his pocket here in Tokyo combined with his two relay silvers from Rio, Scott ties 1908 Olympian Henry Taylor as the most decorated British Olympic swimmer of all time.

After his historic result, Scott stated, “It was always going to be a tight race, an exciting race. The winner did a big personal best as well, it’s probably a lot quicker than people anticipated the final to be going in, so credit to everyone in the race.

The Steven Tigg–trained athlete continued, “I had to try to commit a bit more to the 150m because I know I’ll come back strong. I’ve done that and I’m really happy with the swim, it just wasn’t quite there. It’s only three years to Paris, I might hit puberty before then!”

“I’m happy with that race – it’s my first international medal in that event. It’s a big personal best again, I think I’ve taken well over a second and a half off that this year, so I have to hold my head up high with that.

“This isn’t just a one-meet thing for British Swimming, it’s been going on for a while. It probably started with Adam Peaty back in 2015 when he first won the World Championships and then all the way through, his mental drive and the way he dominates races, it rubs off on people. On top of that, there’s also some excellent coaches in British Swimming who always strive for more and manage to get the best out of their athletes day-to-day, it’s a collection of things.”