"Nobody rings a bell when you reach the peak of your career, so it's important to look at it objectively and realise when that moment has arrived.

I don't want to be going downhill when I retire."

THE sentiment belongs to a veteran, but the words are spoken by a 25-year-old, if one for whom the future has always been in mind. As a nine-year-old, playing with her family in the back garden, Imogen Bankier dreamed of becoming a badminton player; 10 months ago, she resigned from the Great Britain programme because she felt it compromised her Commonwealth Games ambitions; now her attentions are already straying towards what happens after Glasgow 2014.

In more reflective moments, the question will have been considered by many Scottish athletes in a variety of disciplines. After all, how do you replicate the feeling of competing in a home Olympics, then a home Commonwealth Games? Does every other competition not lose a little lustre after that?

Bankier is wrestling with that very conundrum. The 2016 Olympics is something she wants to be part of and, indeed, her lack of confidence in the GB programme for Rio was another factor in her decision to return home from Milton Keynes last year. Being a badminton player is, she insists, her dream career. But it is a career that consumes her life - one that, until last autumn, demanded she stay away from her Glasgow home from Sunday through Friday in order to spend just six hours on court. Being based at Scotstoun is beneficial ahead of the Commonwealth Games but will surely mitigate against her when the Olympic cycle begins again.

It is something Bankier has considered. "I think what will happen is Glasgow will pass and I'll have to make a decision based on my chances of qualifying for Rio," she says. "As a doubles player, I've always been so reliant on partners and if I feel there is a partner who can help me get there I'd love to go because I feel that I'm still improving. I've had a fantastic career and I don't want to put an end to it before I'm ready, but I want to leave the game playing well."

Defeat alongside her Bulgarian partner Petya Nedelcheva in the first round of the women's doubles at this week's World Championship in China might allow critics to cast aspersions on her claim, but the challenge of adapting from mixed doubles has helped renew Bankier's enthusiasm over the past few months. It has also afforded her international exposure that she would otherwise not have had, her return north and consequent divorce from mixed partner Chris Adcock depriving her of the opportunity to defend the World Championship silver they won two years ago, and her partnership with Robert Blair not established enough to have secured a place in the sport's showpiece competition.

The Scottish pair have played just two tournaments since both moved back from Milton Keynes - Blair had immersed himself to such a degree that he represented England before a bitter selection dispute led to another switch of allegiance - but played together for three years until the end of 2009. Such history moves Bankier to compare the reunion to a reconciled marriage. "We've both gone away and played with other partners and had a lot of success without each other, so coming back together has been a lot easier and felt more natural than I thought it might be," she says. "The dynamic has changed because we both have; at the time he was an established world medallist and I was an up- and-coming player, just out of the juniors. Now I'm more of a complete player and he recognises that we're much more evenly matched now."

That being so, the pair are confident of making an impression in Glasgow next summer. Spending a least a week inside the world's top 50 in the early months of 2014 will earn them a place - "that should be relatively straightforward," Bankier says - while a top-30 ranking should mean they are among the top eight seeds for a competition held at the Emirates Arena.

Given the event appears to be quite open, with only a couple of standout pairs, a medal should not be discounted. Bankier believes that badminton could be one of Scotland most successful sports next summer, the national side's performance in beating four higher-ranked nations in May's Sudirman Cup fuelling hopes of a potential team medal in Glasgow. "A lot of it is timing," she explains. "The guys who were 17, 18 or 19 in Delhi will be 21, 22, 23 next summer but it's no coincidence that we've got a group of players peaking in time for the most important event of their careers."

Little more than a year ago, many would suggest that the London Olympics filled that role in Bankier's own timeline. Her world silver with Adcock gave rise to hope of a medal in London, but instead the pair stumbled out in opening group stage, losing all three matches as the pressure of the occasion overwhelmed them. With hindsight, the Scot can point to unrealistic expectations given that they were ranked 10th in the world and were, in fact, unseeded when they achieved a podium place the previous year.

However, Bankier also concedes they "didn't cope so well" with the particular problems that surround a home event. She is determined that, in her own city, she will not make the same mistakes. "I can't actually remember a single point I played that week," she says, laughing at the apparent absurdity. "Normally you remember points here and there but I literally cannot remember a thing about my Olympic badminton experience other than coming out on court . . . maybe it's a good thing that it's been erased from my memory.

"It's a huge regret, probably the biggest of my life, that we didn't perform but I'm hopefully going to have other career-making moments like the terrific memories I've got from qualifying for the Olympics, winning silver in the World Championships, winning a European medal … these are the things I cherish and hopefully I can add to those in Glasgow. I'm just determined to enjoy the moment and let my instincts take over."