It would have been grotesquely unfair if the final memory of Euan Burton's long and distinguished judo career had been the tearful way his Olympic dream ended in London and with that in mind he is determined to keep control of his emotions as he leads Scotland into the Commonwealth Games.
Yet perhaps, like Andy Murray, the 35-year-old has benefited from his emotional reaction in the way the wider world perceives him and his sport. Judo, which is returning to the Commonwealth Games after a 12-year absence, is not best understood by the wider world and Burton acknowledges this.
However, he was deputy to Graeme Randall when he produced one of the most memorable moments of the Manchester Games in 2002 - winning gold as part of a judo squad that contributed hugely to the Scottish cause - and is consequently proud on behalf of his sport to have attracted cross-team support.
"As a judo player you quite often get caught up in this little bubble and a lot of the time you're not really sure if anybody has any clue what you're doing or what your team's about, even what your sport's about," Burton observed.
"So I think rather than anything else it's a testament to how highly judo is regarded in Scotland that the other sports have decided it's a judo athlete who can stand at the front of them when they walk out into Celtic Park."
There must, however, also be a degree of personal satisfaction, to which he testified.
"It's twice as special because not only have I been voted as the person that judo wanted to be put forward, it didn't come from the management or anything like that, it came from the team. But then when it gets to the short-list stage and every sport is given a vote, I've obviously been voted for by one or two of the other sports," he added.
Burton was as reticent when asked for his opinion on the forthcoming referendum as he was careful in his choice of words when asked about Scotland's team outfits.
However, he knows for certain that his selection as flag-bearer has been well received by at least one member of the England team, namely his wife Gemma Gibbons, who won an Olympic silver medal in London. "When I got the call I was at home with my wife, who was jumping around the place when she found out that
I was going to be carrying the flag in for Scotland," said the Edinburgh man, now one of the senior coaches at Judo Scotland's elite headquarters in Ratho.
"There was a little bit of talk among her team that none of the English athletes would walk at the opening ceremony but when she found out that I might be in line to be flagbearer, she was adamant that she wanted to be out there. So she was doubly pleased, one for myself and also secondly that she's going to have something to watch while the English team are standing in the centre of Celtic Park.
"People know that the dynamic for me at the Games is pretty interesting. I've come out of retirement, I'm helping to coach the team and I have a wife who's going to be fighting for another team on the same day as me, so it all makes for a good story and hopefully we can both put medals on the mantelpiece at the end of it."
For all the entrenched rivalry that exists between Scotland and England he believes their approach will be reflected in that of their respective team-mates. "On the whole in the judo squad there's not a big issue, because for 99 per cent of our careers we're GB athletes," Burton pointed out.
"Everybody is together in the team and there's friendly rivalry that comes around probably about six to nine months before any Commonwealth Games that judo's involved in.
"However, as judo was last in the Games in 2002, it's been 12 years since we last had that little bit of friendly banter and it really is that, friendly banter. It's not people fervently opposing the other team. You've got your home nation within GB and you're very proud to represent them. You want to do a job for them on the day."
That said, his principal consideration will be the team that he also helps to coach and he is confident that having picked up 10 medals the last time judo featured in a Commonwealth Games, the group will once again rake in the prizes for Scotland.
"I think we feel that pressure from ourselves because we believe we can deliver something like that again," he said when asked to compare their prospects with what was achieved 12 years ago.
"We have a very strong team going into this Games, we've got a lot of experienced athletes, we've got a lot of athletes for whom this will be the pinnacle of their careers and training's gone really well.
So if everything goes as we hope it can,
it could well be that we're one of the most successful Scottish teams again."
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 hereComments are closed on this article