Scott Quin, a swim teacher with Edinburgh Leisure, will be heading to The British Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre in early April, hoping to qualify for a place in the Paris 2024 Paralympics from 28 August to 8 September.
Born with Crouzon Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, the ex-Warrender Baths-based swimmer has been swimming professionally for the last 12 years, funded by sportscotland and Scottish Swimming. Scott has shown himself to be one of the strongest S14 swimmers in the country, having won medals at Paralympic, World and European level.
Scott said: “At the age of 34 years, I’m now considered something of a veteran and realistically this will probably be my last opportunity to try for a place in the Paralympics.
“Having made my Paralympic debut at Rio 2016, marking it with a silver medal in the SB14 100m Breaststroke, it would be great to finish my competitive swimming career with one more chance to bring a medal home.
“For now, I’m busy with intense training and lots of swimming at the Royal Commonwealth and Edinburgh University pools, six to seven times a week combined with gym-based training at the Uni’s Pleasance gym and at the Commie, as well as working at my day job as a swim coach at Edinburgh Leisure’s Leith Victoria Swim Centre.”
Now considered a ‘veteran athlete’, and with his competitive swim career coming to an end and funding from British Swimming stopping, Quin explored opportunities outside of competitive swimming.
Edinburgh Leisure offered him the chance to join their Swim Teacher Training Programme last summer for his next career pathway, where he could progress from being a full-time athlete and move into the ‘real working world’ but where he could still combine a career which involved swimming. The Swim Teacher Training programme, a structured 13-week training programme, ticked a lot of boxes for Scott – as not only does he receive training but also a salary, and on completion of the programme, was offered a job.
Quin said: “Life, as you can imagine, is particularly busy just now but I’m really excited about heading to London in April for the British Swimming Championships. I’m keeping everything crossed that I make the grade to join the team representing my country.”
The British Swimming Championships are returning to the London Aquatics Centre in 2024 and for the first time, the swimming and para-swimming events will fully combine in one competition as athletes look to book their place at Paris 2024.
The 2024 championships will take place at the venue at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from 2-7 April with the event playing a key role in the selection of the British Olympic and Paralympic swimming teams for the Games in July.
Olympic and Paralympic swimming event schedules will run concurrently in the same programme across six days of heats and finals sessions. The para-swimming events will be run with multi-classification competitions.
It’s the first time since 2015 that the national championships will be held at the Aquatics Centre although it staged the British Swimming Selection Trials ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Evergreen sports journalist. Previously published in many publications around the world. Send me your local sports stories. billlothian1008@gmail.com
