Scotland has done well to hit 50 Olympians - a target of 40-to 50 was set - and signs for the Paralympics are also encouraging.
The number of Scots with hopes of competing with distinction in 2012 is greater than at any previous Olympic Games.
However, with just a couple of dozen names to be added to Team GB, some Scottish strengths and weaknesses have been exposed.
Four tennis players (Andy and Jamie Murray, Colin Fleming and Elana Baltacha) would have been unthinkable in the wasteland that was elite tennis in Scotland a decade ago.
Athletics and swimming returned from the 1998 Commonwealth Games with just one medal each. Swimming has improved steadily since, with six Scots in the 2012 team.
Athletics has just four, and no men at all for the first time since 1956. In 1972 there were 11 Scottish Olympic track and field athletes, but numbers have been declining since.
Several swimmers have medal potential, most notably Garioch's Hannah Miley, but the women 4 x 400m track relay squad which includes Eilidh Child and Lee McConnell seems the only medal possibility among the four Scottish athletes selected.
Chris Hoy, with four cycling medals, is already Scotland's greatest Olympian, and could extend his credentials.
Defending silver-medal canoeist David Florence could go one better, and now has a second event in which to do it.
Yachtsman Luke Patience has shown he is among the best in the world. If Britain was allowed three per event in sailing, as in athletics, a sweep of the podium in his class would have been possible.
Katherine Grainger has twice rowed to silver, and is clearly in title contention, while a second trip to Wimbledon will certainly motivate the Murray brothers.
There has never been greater investment in sport than in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics, and Scotland will attempt to ride on the back of that to deliver their best ever Commonwealth Games performance when Glasgow hosts in 2014.
UK Sport has invested £264m in high performance sport for the 2012 Olympics. Paralympic sport has received £49m.
This compares with £59m from the World Class Performance programme for Sydney in 2000, £70m for Athens four years later, and £235m for Beijing in 2008.
Despite this investment, there have been unseemly selection rows which have exposed very amateur governance in a number of sports. UK Sport has now threatened to cut funding of governing bodies which do not put their houses in order.
Support is allocated on the basis of medal success at Olympic and World level. Relatively unfashionable disciplines like water polo and handball, for example, have received nearly £3m each.
Rowing and cycling, despite relatively low participation numbers, are highest funded at more than £27m and £26m respectively because of previous success. This upstages mainstream disciplines with more competitive numbers like athletics and swimming (£25m each).
This well will inevitably dry up after 2012, but Scotland may be temporarily insulated because of 2014.
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