Double gold medallist Clegg has overcome adversity on and off the track

Despite 100m silver in her two previous Paralympic appearances, Clegg may be most familiar to Scots as the only home athletics gold medallist of the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Hampden where she took the visually-impaired 100m title. Integration of able-bodied and disability sport in Glasgow achieved more for disability recognition than the 17 medals (six gold) she had won at 10 global and European International Paralympic Committee championships over a decade. Until now.

Clegg suffers from Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy, a degenerative eye condition, but her Rio title double follows spectacular triumph over further adversity. Injury ruled her out of last year's IPC World Championships which meant she failed to fulfil performance targets set by UK Sport. After seven years, lottery funding was cut with the biggest impact being loss of her support team.

She split with her partner, her coach, and her long-time guide runner, but sponsors had more faith than UKS. Edinburgh Solicitors' Property Centre, Scottish and Southern Energy, Allianz, and Eukanuba who supply food for her guide dog, continued to help her bankroll privately the services she had lost. She was offered scottishathletics support but said she would manage, and soon lined up a kit deal with Asics, a new coach, and guide Chris Clarke.

She remained full time and rejected a suggestion from fellow Paralympian Neil Fachie to switch to cycling, and fulfilled a vow that her fastest times lay ahead.

Yet just weeks before Rio where she smashed the Olympic 200m record, she was reclassified. Her very limited vision had deterioriated and she now had to wear a blindfold, making it "very daunting" coming out of the blocks, but she has since run the fastest times of her life.

Clegg began sport with a far milder disability, as an 800m runner. "She was doing cross-country when I first saw her, in Royal Blind School Championships a decade ago," said Janice Eaglesham, head of Scottish Disability Sport (SDS). "I thought she might go to endurance. I lay no claim to coaching Libby. I just helped set up sprint coaching for her."

But when she left the track having won her second gold this week, Clegg's first act was to wish Eaglesham happy birthday. With her partner, Ian Mirfin, Eaglesham founded the iconic Red Star club in Glasgow which is a major factor in Scotland having a record nine athletics competitors in Rio. All were nurtured by SDS.

Mirfin, Paralympic event lead at scottishathletics who have nine of the 32 Scottish competitors in Rio, says Clegg will be considered for restoration to UKS funding in the standard post Games review. "As a double gold medallist she has a fair chance of the top level of support, " he said.

Athletes restored to funding return at the same level, or higher, but disability experts feel that after surpassing all expectation, it would be helpful if sportscotland acknowledged Scottish quality, which included world records in one of Rio's few truly pan-global sports. Given that team GB have surpassed the London 2012 gold tally and are within sight of the total haul, it would be appropriate if sportscotland invested more widely in performance disabilty athletics beyond the Institute of Sport.

Clegg has had to operate in Rio without her guide dog, Hatti, but her brother, Stephen, is in the swim team. Her other brother, James, won Paralympic butterfly bronze in 2012. Both brothers also suffer from Stargardt's whose hazards were exemplified when James accidentally set the family home on fire several years ago.

Quality coaching, as ever, is the key to performance improvement, so it is worth noting scottishathletics' National Coaching Conference a week today and tomorrow [Sat/Sun] at Glasgow's Emirates. World-class international speakers include home-grown Olympic coaches Andy Young (Laura Muir, 1500m) and Robert Hawkins whose sons Callum and Derek ran the marathon. Plus Aston Moore, who coaches Scottish Paralympic long-jump silver medallist Stef Reid. To book, visit scottishathletics.org

AND ANOTHER THING . . .

IS Vladimir Putin behind the release of hacked private medical data of international athletes? Despite denials, the World Anti-Doping Agency is convinced the "Fancy Bear" group has mounted a retaliatory strike following Olympic and Paralympic sanctions imposed for Russia's state-sponsored doping. It's not unreasonable to suspect Putin's hand in this.

Few groups have the expertise to mount a cyber attack against an organisation so firmly embeded in principles of confidentiality, but among them, surely, is Russia's security service which can't act without presidential approval. The bear is his country's national symbol, and 1980 Moscow Olympic mascot.

Revelations of medication authorised for use by such as Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, and the Williams sisters is irrelevant in a doping context, even though it's calculated to stigmatise competitors. More pertinently it is designed to promote the notion that Russia is the victim of a Western conspiracy.

Details of substances for which athletes had obtained Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) certificates were published by hackers.

The TUE system is firmly established. Competitors who require medication for chronic conditions (eg asthma, from which Wiggins suffers) or emergency one-off treatments which involve a prohibited substance, must obtain permission from their international federation or national anti-doping agency.

The UK process involves assessment of detailed medical data by at least three independent doctors. This is then subject to WADA examination. Criteria includes proof that no alternative to the prohibited treatment exists, and that it confers no significant performance enhancement.

The process is designed to allow clean athletes to compete, despite a medical condition which would otherwise cause significant health issues. Application must be made 30 days before participation and details of the TUE, and the substance, must be declared at any dope test. Froome has used a TUE twice in nine years, for exacerbated asthma.