THE coverage of Team Scotland in the build-up to these Commonwealth Games was all-encompassing.
There were press conferences every other day. Athletes were besieged by television, radio, online and print journalists. Features were written on almost every participant in every discipline, some not even making the paper due to space constraints. There were pull-outs, posters and staged photo opportunities. These were athletes used to spending life in the shadow of their football counterparts, coming out into the sunshine and blooming. Everyone had their 15 minutes of fame.
Well, not quite everyone. Somehow Dan Wallace managed to sneak in to Glasgow completely under the media radar. A quick online search for the new 400m individual swimming medley Commonwealth champion throws up precious few results that predate his momentous four minutes and 11 seconds in Tollcross pool on Friday night.
There were a few mentions of Pee-gate - his unfortunate brush with the law when he was caught urinating on a police car - but beyond that there had been little written about the 21-year-old's chances in this competition. In stark contrast to the publicity afforded fellow swimmers Michael Jamieson and Hannah Miley, in particular, Wallace's build-up to the Games had been very low-key indeed.
Part of that is down to the fact that for the past two years he has been studying anthropology at the University of Florida, something that has tied in nicely with his swimming programme. He has also arrived back home without the pedigree of having tasted success at previous major events, and was also not considered among the favourites to win his race. All those factors, he can say with the certainty of hindsight, came together in his favour.
"Being over in Florida the last year or so has probably helped me," he admitted. "I've not really been under the spotlight as much as Michael or Hannah. That took a lot of stress off. I came here as a fresh face and I just wanted to make Team Scotland proud. I think Friday night did that. It was unbelievable. I can't really explain what it feels like to walk out and hear that roar of energy from the whole of Scotland. I knew it was going to be loud, but I had no idea it was going to be like this. I am just enjoying every single moment, getting the whole crowd and the whole of Scotland involved."
This might only be the start of it for Wallace. He is set to compete again today in the 4x200m freestyle relay and then in the 200m individual medley on Tuesday. In the long-term he has even greater ambitions, most centring on making the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in two years' time and going once more for gold.
"I'm still a young swimmer and this taste of success has just motivated me even more to go on and do some great things," he said. "This is just the beginning for me. Team Scotland have now established themselves as some of the best swimmers and athletes in the world and we're really looking to build. There are going to be great things in the next four years.
"Scottish swimming is improving rapidly and 2016 can be a fantastic year for us. Friday night's performance for me will really help me towards Rio and the dream is to get that Olympic gold medal and I'll do everything I can to get it."
As memorable as his efforts in the pool on Friday night, so were his celebrations. "For Freedom!" he yelped upon realising the gold medal was his. The morning after, however, he played down any talk of that shriek as a political statement ahead of September's independence referendum, insisting he was merely paraphrasing from the movie film Braveheart.
"I've watched the film a bunch of times and it really gets you pumped up," he said. "But the other night was just a spontaneous reaction as I was on top of the world. We don't really talk about politics, we're just here to represent Team Scotland as well as we can and pick up as many medals as we can. The reaction from everyone since Friday has been amazing."
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