Scott 'hungry as ever' before GB Championships
Aquatics GB Swimming ChampionshipsWhen: 15-20 April Where: London Aquatics CentreCoverage: Each night of the championships including the finals of every event will be available on iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app from 18.45 BST.
Scottish swimmer Duncan Scott says he is "as hungry as ever" as he aims to build on an already glittering career at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships. Scott, 27, helped Great Britain win gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay and claimed silver in the men's 200m individual medley at last year's Paris Olympics, taking his overall Olympic medal tally to eight.Despite becoming Scotland's most decorated Olympian, alongside a raft of other major championship medals, Scott is determined to further swell his silverware collection."I am the most decorated silver medallist at the Olympic games so I have had plenty of seconds and nearly moments and that comes with a lot of motivation in itself," Scott told BBC Scotland. "I am as hungry as ever."On one hand I have achieved a lot and I am really grateful for what I have been able to do. Over my career I have been able to achieve a really high level of success for a long period of time, but on the other side I have fallen short so many times. "In some ways you can say it is a positive because it has kept me hungry for this entire time, it allows me to keep pushing."I find that quite exciting as well. There is so much that I still want to do and achieve in the sport and think that I am capable of doing that as well."
Scott, who is working under new coach Ben Higson, will be among the star attractions at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships which get under way on Tuesday.Qualification places for this summer's World Championships in Singapore are up for grabs, although the pressure is off in that regard for Scott, who has been pre-selected for the 200m IM and the 4x200m freestyle relay events.The Glasgow-born swimmer is getting back up to speed in the pool after taking three months off at the end of last year. It is a decision Scott believes can only benefit him, although he admits he did get "really out of shape" in his spell away from the sport."It's the first time I had taken that kind of break other than an enforced break during Covid, so it was just quite a nice time to just totally switch off," Scott explained."I probably still don't realise quite how good the break was. I would do it again but I probably wouldn't get as out of shape as I did, it was three months and I managed to get myself really out of shape pretty fast."I think a break after an Olympic cycle is really important not only for the physical side of it but mentally to either regroup, assess what you have done well, assess what you have not done well and also what you want achieve."
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