PHOTOGRAPHS of Scotland's Olympic medallists crawling down a packed Royal Mile in an open-top bus reached their 17 Paralympian counterparts in Macau last week, spreading excited vibrations through the camp.
Not that they needed any exterior motivation. Chris Hoy, three gold medals in the one Games? They are undaunted. Jim Anderson won four in Athens in 2004, a year after turning 40. Tomorrow the irrepressible swimmer from Broxburn will enter the pool in
Beijing's Water Cube fully intent on repeating the haul.
Over in the Laoshan Velodrome, where cyclists from all corners of the UK combined last month to grind all-comers into the dust, Glasgow's Aileen McGlynn begins her quest for three gold medals to swallow up the one title she picked up in Greece. In the aftermath of Beijing, no target for a ready British cyclist can be deemed unrealistic, and the opening day of competition for Caledonian Paralympians could be dramatically successful.
"We certainly hope that, with the form Aileen is in, the track cycling team can produce a gold medal on the first day of the Games, as they did four years ago," said Liz Mendl, director of athlete services at the Scottish Institute of Sport.
McGlynn and her sighted pilot, Ellen Hunter, won the 1km time trial in Athens and silver in the sprint, but the latter event has been scratched this time around. So, like Hoy, the blind 35-year-old has resolved instead to win everything else on the card: both time trials (the 1km title, where she is world record holder, will be decided tomorrow, before Monday's 500m) and the individual pursuit, which begins on Tuesday.
"It's great that the team went out and set so many records and won so many golds (in the Olympics]," said McGlynn. "But we actually won 14 gold medals at the world championships last year and set the standard there.
"We are hoping to go out and win three gold medals in Beijing, so the bar is definitely set higher."
Jim Anderson, according to Mendl, left Macau for Beijing earlier than he was obligated to, with a big smile on his face. At 45, he might redefine the parameters of national heroism if he emerges with a similar bounty to the one he wrought from Athens, where he won the 50m backstroke and three freestyle titles – the 50m, 100m and 200m.
The latter event (S2 class) is where Anderson begins his fifth Paralympics quest tomorrow, having won six golds and seven silvers since his debut in Barcelona 16 years ago.
"We have to respect that he is four years older," says Mendl, "but he has been training and working in the hope of winning more gold medals and it's all about making sure the training matches the changing physique that comes with the ageing process.
"But age is certainly not the same barrier as it is in able-bodied events. He is just a delightful athlete who has been around for a long time and dedicated his whole life to training."
If Sean Fraser, who also suffers from cerebral palsy, emulates a fraction of Anderson's achievements he will have had a good career. Fresh out of school, the Warrender Baths competitor from Loanhead contests his first Paralympic event tomorrow in the 100m butterfly (S8).
On Monday, an avalanche of Scots come into the frame in the football sevens, the first batch of athletics events in the Bird's Nest stadium and the wheelchair tennis, where 16-year-old Gordon Reid joins Kevin Simpson in the men's singles.
Mendl, whose institute backs 12 members of the Paralympian team, emphasised the point: "One of our challenges here in Macau has been keeping up with the news from home, and Chris Hoy has been a real inspiration to the entire team, but all the athletes here have prepared very professionally and are absolutely focused on their own events."
The full article contains 662 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
