Only 12 Scottish athletes returned from London 2012 with a medal and of those, only three were won in individual sports.

Michael Jamieson won silver in the 200m breaststroke, which was the best result by a Scottish swimmer at an Olympic Games since David Wilkie won gold 40 years ago. When Jamieson was standing on the podium at the London Aquatics Centre, it seemed that the world was his oyster. That single race turned Jamieson into one of the pre-eminent faces of Scottish sport and one of only a handful of athletes from minority sports who would be recognised on the streets of Scotland. But Jamieson’s journey over the past four years has highlighted just how brutal sport can be.

There are now just 140 days until the opening ceremony of Rio 2016. The past four years have flown by but for Jamieson, so much has happened.

He was the face of Glasgow 2014 and after his Olympic heroics, it was assumed that he was a shoo-in for Commonwealth gold. The Games organisers engineered the schedule so that his event was on the opening night. But, as we all know, Jamieson lost out on gold to his compatriot, Ross Murdoch, and from that point, he has had a torrid time. Injuries beset him and he was not selected for the 2015 World Championships, the first time he had missed out on GB selection for a major championships since 2009. He also lost his UK Sport funding.

If Jamieson is to make a second Olympic appearance, he must qualify at the British trials in just 25 days' time. There are only two spots in each event and Murdoch has described making the British team in breaststroke as tougher than making the Olympic final.

Last year, Jamieson relocated from his training base in Bath to Edinburgh with the aim of recapturing the form that brought him the British record at London 2012. But it has not gone smoothly. At the Edinburgh International Meet last weekend, Jamieson could only finish in sixth place in the 200m breaststroke. In the immediate aftermath of that race, Jamieson gave an astonishing interview. “There’s been a number of times I’ve been holding back the tears over the last couple of years,” he said. “This is rubbish. I’m doing everything I can and I’m the same athlete I was four years ago – that’s what makes it hard to take. I care so much about it, I don’t want it to be over.”

It was tough to listen to. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard an athlete talk so honestly about how they were feeling, particularly this close to a major competition. It is a credit to Jamieson that he was so frank but it also illustrates just how brutal and unforgiving a world sport is. When Jamieson walked away, someone said: ‘Oh well, it’s not life or death’. To paraphrase Bill Shankly, it’s much more important than that. When you retire from sport and look back, you realise that it’s actually not all that important. Does it matter who swims the fastest or jumps the highest or wins a badminton match? In the grand scheme of things, not really. But at the time, it’s the most important thing in the world. You give up any semblance of ‘normal’ life and sometimes the rewards come, but sometimes they don’t.

Jamieson is a class act. When he says that he’s doing everything to get to Rio, I completely believe him. He is the consummate role model; he is articulate, charming and unerringly professional. He is also an Olympic medallist, which is something so few people can say. It is impossible to overstate just how tough it is to win an Olympic medal. If Jamieson never wins another race in his life, he can be immensely proud of his career. But he would do absolutely anything to improve his form and get to Rio. It’s not that he doesn’t want it enough. It’s not because he’s not training hard enough – he trains so hard that a couple of years ago, he gave himself a heart scare. And it’s not that he’s not good enough – his past results prove that.

It’s easy to assume that athletes lead something of a charmed life and in many ways, they do. Being paid to train full-time and travel the world is hardly working down the mines. But it can also be the toughest, loneliest existence imaginable. Last weekend, Jamieson said that he is thinking about this non-stop. That is likely to be no exaggeration. It remains to be seen whether Jamieson makes it to Rio or not. This time next month, we’ll all know. The best and worst thing about sport is that no one gets anything handed to them. No one gets anything because of their reputation or their background or their social standing. Sport is the most democratic realm in the world. This is what makes it great. But, as Jamieson knows as well as anyone, it’s also what can make it so excruciatingly painful.