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.