British Swimming chief Chris Spice is confident his team can deliver a wave of medals in Rio and reach its minimum target of three in the pool.
Eight Scots have been included in a squad that is bidding to bounce back from a disappointing 2012 Games in London when Michael Jamieson’s silver was their best return.
With Ross Murdoch targeting the podium in the 100m breaststroke next weekend along side favourite Adam Peaty - and a number of possible relay medallists - the UK line-up will attempt to build on a successful European and world championships over the last 12 months.
And the sport’s performance director is expecting his charges to deliver when it counts.
“We have to be aiming for 60 to 65 per cent of our athletes achieving season best times in their final races and if we do that then the medals will come to us,” said Spice, whose squad have spent the past week at a training camp in nearby Belo Horizonte.
“I think we’ve got some really good chances across the team and from our relays, and it’s great to see athletes vying for selection within these. We want that sort of depth and competition within the team. It’s good for the whole dynamic.
“I think our athletes are as fit as we’ve ever seen them. They’re sharp and focused while the environment around them is pretty relaxed. We’re not quite ready yet but that’s where we want them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here