There are 53 Scots in Tokyo for the Olympic Games, the largest-ever number of athletes from north of the border.
Six of those have Tayside and Fife connections.
Courier Sport provides a lowdown on our local Olympians.
Caroline Weir
The first of the Courier Country six has already got her Olympics underway.
Fife footballer Caroline Weir played her part in the British women’s football team getting off to a perfect start to their tournament with a 2-0 win against Chile.
Born in Dunfermline, Weir grew up supporting her local football team.
The Pars fan is a classy midfielder who has reached the top of her chosen sport with Manchester City and played in the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France for Scotland.
In a squad dominated by English players, Weir’s selection was still a no-brainer.
Britain have a shot at a medal, possibly even gold, and it could be the Scot’s wand of a left foot that secures it with a trademark 25-yard free-kick.
Kathleen Dawson
The likes of Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott are the household names in the British swimming team but Dawson is arguably the breakout star of 2021.
She certainly couldn’t have timed her career peak any better.
Born in Kirkcaldy, she learnt to swim in Warrington but is now based in her home country again at Stirling University.
Dawson swam at the 2014 Commonwealth Games but missed out on Olympic selection two years ago.
You certainly can’t doubt her mental strength.
For starters, the 23-year-old has fought back from a career-threatening ruptured ACL.
And the manner in which she won her 100m European backstroke gold in Budapest a couple of months ago also speaks to her character and focus.
Dawson won the final in 58.18 seconds before a faulty speaker that had prevented Sweden’s Louise Hansson from hearing the starting buzzer led to the race being rescheduled for two hours later.
The time may have been half-a-second slower but the swimmer who placed first was the exact same.
Dawson won both the 100m and 200m GB trials and is the eighth fastest in history in the former.
She is a genuine medal contender at that distance, albeit the field at Tokyo is a stellar one.
Katie Reid
The waters are choppier for our next Fifer.
Dunfermline canoeist Katie Reid will be making a bit of Olympic history.
She will become the first female C1 canoe sprint paddler to represent Britain as the event has never been included in the Games before.
📣Katie Reid to make history with Team GB selection 🥳
Huge congratulations to @katiejaynereid after it was announced that the canoe sprint athlete has been selected to represent Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games! 💪🗼
Read more 👇👇https://t.co/MRpqujZkKa pic.twitter.com/l9EtMewICt
— British Canoeing (@BritishCanoeing) July 8, 2021
Reid has excelled at two sports that couldn’t be more diverse.
She was a Scottish karate champion before transitioning to canoeing as part of the 2014 Girls4Gold programme to uncover talented female athletes who could potentially compete at future Olympic Games.
Within a year of that switch, she was holding her own at world level.
Now based at Nottingham, Reid won bronze at the 2018 Canoeing World Cup.
Eilish McColgan
Eilish has long since gone past the ‘daughter of Liz’ stage.
She’s a 30-year-old runner who has competed at two Olympics and medalled at the European Championships.
Eilish, born and bred in the Dundee area like her mother, will compete in the 10,000m and 5,000m in Japan.
A 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 for @EilishMccolgan 🙌
A HUGE performance in the women's 5000m, clocking a massive PB and NR of 14:28.55 💪
📊 Timetable and results: https://t.co/fa2pOtNTQe #OsloDL #DiamondLeague pic.twitter.com/Hzxqtmc9XW
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) July 1, 2021
It will be at the second of those distances that she has a shot at getting on the podium given she recently smashed Paula Radcliffe’s 17-year-old 5,000m British women’s record.
Three decades ago Liz famously claimed World gold in Tokyo and it would be one of the feelgood stories of the Games if Eilish had a medal put around her neck in the same city.
Laura Muir
Like her fellow Dundee Hawkhill Harrier, Muir could have doubled up but has chosen to put all her eggs in the 1,500m basket and ignore the temptation of taking on the 800m.
The recovery time between events would no doubt have been one of the biggest reasons.
The 28-year-old is one of very few genuinely world-class athletes and gold medal contenders in the British track and field team.
The multi-talented Milnathort runner famously juggled her veterinary studies with sport for several years but the sole focus has been the latter since 2018.
Muir has medals (many of them) at Commonwealth, European and World level but needs an Olympic one to complete the set.
She is at the peak of her career and it is probably a case of now or never.
Nicole Yeargin
Another Fifer. Kind of.
400m runner Nicole Yeargin has her Dunfermline mother, who moved to the United States to work for the British Embassy, to thank for being eligible to compete under the Union Jack.
Her background is all-American.
Born in Maryland, Yeargin studied at the university of Southern California.
And it was as a student that she moved to third in the Scottish all-time women’s 400m list. Her time of 50.96 seconds was of Olympic qualifying standard and was followed up by a second place at the British Championships in Manchester, where she wore the Pitreavie AAC vest.
Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.
Next stop Tokyo🇯🇵✈️ pic.twitter.com/z9q7prrdz1
— Nicole Yeargin (@yourfitnic) July 15, 2021
Her knowledge of all things Dunfermline has yet to be put to the test (Caroline Weir could maybe help her out if they bump into each other in the athletes’ village) but a declared love of sausage rolls is an encouraging start for a potential future Scottish queen of the track.
