HE might not exactly have been the face of Team GB but Callum Skinner will settle for being one of the jawbones of Rio de Janeiro. The 24-year-old track cyclist from Glasgow, who returned home from Brazil with a gold and a silver medal to his name, is becoming more recognisable with each passing week - or at least he would be if he had taken his helmet off a bit more.

"It is kind of sinking in, the calendar is slowly filling up," said Skinner, at the homecoming event in Edinburgh this week. "It is difficult though, because as a cyclist you have got your helmet on, so all people can see is your jaw! They think 'hmm ... that looks a bit familiar'."

Courting the limelight is one thing. Getting the rather unwelcome attention of finding your face and name plastered on internet sites the world over is another. No sooner had Skinner compiled a medal haul which included gold in the sacred Sir Chris Hoy role anchoring Britain's team sprint, then a silver medal in the individual event behind a seemingly unbeatable Jason Kenny, than he was being put on the back foot. He found details of his Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) spread all over the world wide web by Russian hacking group the Fancy Bears.

As disappointed as he was at the security breach represented by the data hack and all the innuendo, Skinner was determined not to be a victim. After a swift NHS phone round, he volunteered his entire medical history as context, including the detail that he had undergone his first childhood incident of asthma at the age of five. A dignified statement in a newspaper insisted that he had perfectly valid medical reasons for being prescribed prednisolone, a glucocorticoid used to treat inflammation, in November 2014, then asthma drug salbutamol for two days in January 2016.

"I was disappointed with the TUEs being leaked," says Skinner. "I have got nothing against them being public but I would prefer to have presented them in the way I have now.

"I think it is quite a positive story if you turn it around," he added. "Even if you are admitted to hospital as a kid after an asthma attack, or rely on asthma medication, it shows that you can still compete at the highest level. But we put a lot of personal information on that website. It is not only our medical history that is on there, we say where we are going to be for an hour every day, where we are sleeping. There is all sorts of personal information and I think WADA need to tighten up security going forward."

It wasn't just Skinner's entire medical history that is suddenly out in the open. In an interview with the Times, Skinner divulged another long-held secret, that his father Scott is gay. "I guess you could say it has been a big week for me," Skinner said. "But again it is a really positive story. I would encourage anyone to read the full article because some people have told me it is quite powerful.

"I just feel like I am at a point in my career where I can talk about this openly," he added. "The reaction I have had from my team-mates and my coaches has been fantastic."

The malign actions of a group of state-sponsored Russian hackers were never likely to tarnish how Skinner feels about his greatest achievement. While he brushed shoulders with Sir Chris Hoy as a youngster, the 24-year-old from Glasgow has had to endure plenty of setbacks on his path to glory. There were feelings of insecurity, of failing to measure up to his world class team-mates Philip Hindes and Kenny, as Britain finished eighth in the team sprint at the Paris World Championships in 2015, and sixth in London earlier this year. Skinner stayed the course and British Cycling and its marginal gains culture did the rest.

"We have had Jason and Phil go off and do the quickest first two laps then I have taken over and we have finished in sixth," says Skinner. "And you know, these guys are Olympic champions, I look up to them, these are the guys I want to chase down, go as quick as and do proud. It would have been quite easy for them [British Cycling] to just cast me aside and say 'that's it'. So I am grateful for the confidence they had in me."

Hoy has moved on from British cycling these days, but he has been a calming influence at moments of stress. "Chris came into the village a day or two before and said 'you know, the other teams are going to be scratching their heads because GB are doing it again'," recalls Skinner. "Even when it was the night before the final [of the individual sprint] against Jason, he texted again, saying 'you can win this'. There is nothing better, because he inspired me to get into the sport when I was younger. He was there when I was a youth and he is still supporting me now."

It would be churlish, of course, to suggest that Hoy was motivated in any way by the fact Kenny could soon overhaul his record six Olympic golds to become Britain's most successful-ever Olympian. But Skinner has an ingenious plan to beat his all-conquering team-mate by the time Tokyo comes round. It mainly involves watching and learning from him every day at practice.

"He is taking a longer break than me, so maybe that will help!" said Skinner, who will compete in Glasgow at the track world cup at the Emirates Arena in November. "I am still developing my career while Jason is obviously at the peak. There is no better person to try to keep up with at training each day than Jason. I will hopefully go to Tokyo and at least to improve. But my target is to get all three [team sprint, individual sprint, and keirin], just like Chris did in Beijing."