THE stroke is smooth and practised, the clothes are crisp and obviously expensive, the voice is assured and pleasantly confident.

Michael Jamieson steps from the pool at Tollcross, puts on his designer gear and talks the talk. He has walked the walk.

It is tempting to view the 25-year-old Scot as someone who adopted the mantle of sporting excellence as some sort of right. He is relaxed, articulate and seems born for the role as ambassador for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Yet the journey to Tollcross International Swimming Centre has been long and demanding for the Glasgow boy who grew to be a top-class performer in the 200m breaststroke. Jamieson sits in the east end of Glasgow as an Olympic silver medallist but his first visits were marked by bumps, groans and the inevitable yawn.

"I remember coming to Tollcross to meet the head coaches of City of Glasgow. I think I had just turned 12 and I was asking to come for a trial, just at the same time I was starting high school at the Glasgow School of Sport," he said yesterday. "I was pretty young, but I knew I wanted to be a professional sportsman and to be in swimming. I was training eight times a week the first year. My mum used to work down south a fair bit and I remember my dad having to bundle my younger sister into the car as well at 5am on the way to training. I could hear groaning in the back of the car coming over speed bumps on Shettleston Road."

The road has not been entirely smooth since then. Jamieson followed his coach to Paris and lived in the sort of garret that would have discouraged a struggling artist. He showed his mettle then by enduring his living conditions and making the breakthrough into international swimming. A silver in the world championships in Istanbul last year was followed by a spectacular second-place finish in the Olympics where Jamieson bucked the trend of an under-performing Team GB.

His performance and demeanour suggested that he had become a fixture at the top of the men's breaststroke discipline. Yet the world championships in Barcelona earlier this month proved a disappointment. Jamieson, coming back after a bicep injury, finished fifth, just 0.18 seconds outside a podium place. "It was a wake-up call. It was really disappointing. I was so determined not to fall into that post-Olympic lull and really do not think I did," he said. "It was taken out of my hands. I was in great shape in the lead-up, I was really confident, training has been going well, I was swimming faster than I was before London."

He added: "The disappointment has sort of subsided now and it is now what better way to set up a Commonwealth season. I was looking to get a medal at Barcelona and I know I was capable of that but injuries are part and parcel of the sport. I need to take it on the chin."

Jamieson, speaking at Tollcross to publicise the beginning of the ticketing process for the Games, is aware that he is not only one of the major faces of the games but one of those who is expected to lift gold. His nemesis in recent championships has been Hungary's Daniel Gyurta, who took gold in Barcelona and the Olympics. In Barcelona, Marco Koch of Germany finished runner up with Finland's Matti Mattson winning bronze. Jamieson also finished just behind Andrew Willis, the 22-year old Englishman who will be a leading rival in Glasgow.

"It's not something that scares me," said Jamieson of the prospect of the pressure that awaits a home hopeful in a major competition. "I expect results from myself and I'm my own harshest critic, so if I don't get the results I'm looking for, I'll be as disappointed as anyone else. That's something I need to learn to deal with in the lead-up to the Games. People are looking at results over the past few years; I've finished second at the last couple of big events and obviously I want to go one better. Aside from any external pressures, that's common sense - you want to always better yourself, and I'm going to be first in the pool this season training towards the result everyone is looking for."

Jamieson seemed to revel in the stress of the London Olympics with his surge to second place in the 200m breaststroke final enhanced by his ability to reflect articulately on his achievement. He added: "After the experience of last summer, I know I can deal with that environment and get the best performance from myself when the pressure's on, when the crowd's behind us. I need to just stay grounded and think about those positive aspects, because it can be easy to let the pressure and expectation get to you. That's part and parcel of sport I guess, and that's as important a part of training as being in the pool.

"It's comforting knowing I can deal with that and, over the next year, I'm going to keep it as simple as I can, just doing what I've always done, training as hard as I can and embracing the big meets and competitions."

Jamieson, though, has the wisdom to appreciate his "privileged' position. He is enthused by the ambassadorial role that he shares with Sir Chris Hoy and Jessica Ennis. He is determined, too, to enjoy the experience of participating in another major competition. His London adventure included the joys of living in the athletes' village with such as Usain Bolt and basketball player LeBron James.

His return to Tollcross next year will involve the short trip from the athletes' village down the road, over the same speed bumps and into the pool where he once trained. There is, though, one difference. "I'm just hungrier and more motivated than ever to deliver the results everyone is expecting," he said.