Sport and the referendum. Part 3: Road to Rio would be difficult but it would also be exciting

Yet despite his elevation to the Scottish Sport Hall of Fame, only a handful of the most obsessive Olympic aficionados will be aware of the man who made his ephemeral mark in 1896. Yet if Scotland were to vote Yes today, the Saltire could be raised above the first Olympic champion wearing a Scotland vest in 2016. And he or she would carve a unique niche, guaranteeing permanent fame.

Could a Scotland team be established in time? Who would select it? How would it be funded? And would all Scots athletes be certain to compete for it?

We have already advocated an independent commission of inquiry to determine all aspects of the future of Scottish sport. There is no Scottish Olympic Association. One would have to be established.

What role should Scotland's Government have in that? If any. The British Olympic Association is wholly independent of UK Government and receives no money from it or the National Lottery. It has to raise all its own funds independently.

Commonwealth Games Scotland selects teams based on submissions from individual sports, just like the BOA. The BOA's independence allowed them to ignore Margaret Thatcher's attempts to orchestrate a boycott of Moscow in 1980.

CGS is not independent. Sportscotland (funded by Scotland's Government) has a key role in bankrolling it. The Scottish Government put endowment funding in place which gives them financial security, and there can be no argument that the relationship helped make the 2014 Games an outstanding success.

Past Scottish Commonwealth teams were dependent on commercial sponsorship and a successful public appeal.

In an independent Scotland, competition for sponsorship will be intense. Appeals to national loyalty for many worthy causes will inevitably increase. Priorities may change. Would an independent Scotland retain elite funding? Possibly not as we know it.

There is no reason why Scotland should follow the BOA principle of independent funding but uncertainty over such changes would almost certainly prompt athletes to review their position.

What level of Government backing would be available to a Scottish Olympic team? If any. Massive sponsorship, far above anything CGS has ever had to contemplate before, may be needed, otherwise we might have a very small Olympic team.

It goes without saying that, in an independent Scotland the role of the Commonwealth Games would be significantly marginalised. The Olympics would be the priority for competitors, rather than the Commonwealths. Independent nations within the Commonwealth: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, for example, prioritise the Olympics ahead of the Commonwealths. Why should Scotland be any different?

How many existing Scottish Olympians would pledge blind allegiance to the Saltire without knowing how it might affect their income? It's a microcosm of the fiscal debate which has consumed the electorate these past months. Just as it is for all those voting today, for athletes it's a question of head versus heart. Current UK Sport elite funding, at the highest level, pays the mortgage and groceries, and puts petrol in the car, as well as supporting a raft of sports benefits.

It would be understandable if competitors refused to gamble their futures in the hope of a seamless replacement of UKS funding by sportscotland, though the quango confirms they have plans in place. We are talking about professional sportspeople's jobs, careers, not games people play.

Scottish competitors might wish to remain in the rUK (rest of the United Kingdom) or whatever it may be called in future, in order to compete in that Olympic team.

Many are already resident in England and the Olympic movement recognises dual nationality. How the rest of what would be the former UK might regard this, though, is problematic.

Three Scots won individual Olympic medals in 2012 but 11 others were won in partnerships with other UK nationals.

These 11 may not wish to split winning teams for the sake of being "Scottish", especially if doing so might compromise their livelihood. Even Scottish Olympians who were not medallists in London have made it clear that funding uncertainties and other considerations would give them a very difficult decision. Opinions may vary depending whether athletes are assured of their rUK place or merely aspire to an Olympic blazer which might be easier to come by as a Scot, or whether they would risk trading a probable rUK medal chance for a more problematic one for Scotland.

Of 61 medals won by Scots since 1964, only 22 were individual ones.

But would our London 2012 haul of three medals (two gold, one silver) be so poor? Look at European cultures of similar population to Scotland and their London 2012 performances: Norway (4.9m, 2 gold, four medals), Denmark (5.5m, 2/9), Finland (5.3m 0/3), Ireland (4.5, 1/5). We appear to be punching around our weight, even discounting our 11 "team" medals in 2012.

As an aside here, we'd point out that Finland, poorest medal performers (yes, we know they are a winter sport nation) claim a higher percentage of its population in membership of sports clubs than any other European nation. This suggests a broad-base exercise habit may not necessarily equate to better national elite performance.

Would there be time for Scotland to send a team to Rio, less than two years away? Herald Sport was assured in 1996, in an exclusive interview with Olympic president Juan Antonio Samaranch, that Scotland would swiftly be granted Olympic status. He cited the speedy assimilation of new European states spawned by the fragmenting of the Soviet Union. Montenegro competed in Beijing within two years of independence and three new Baltic States contested the 1992 Winter Olympics just five months after UN recognition. Thomas Bach, the current Olympic president, said this month that Scottish competitors would be "safeguarded".

Discussions have taken place between sportscotland and Commonwealth Games Scotland, confirms a spokeswoman for the latter, as part of the independent evaluation on Scottish Sport under the chairmanship of former First Minister Henry McLeish. UK Sport, the BOA and the British Paralympic Association all failed to respond to requests for input.

It recommended that the Scottish Government establish a single body to discharge the functions of national Olympic and Paralympic committees, and the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland, and that this should include commitment to the promotion and growth of para-sports. Only 14 of the Commonwealth sports in Glasgow are Olympic ones. Summer and Winter Sports total 41, and CGS has no experience of 27 of them. There is an enormous challenge here. The BOA, when not in Games-hosting mode, employs a staff of 40, some earning significant six-figure salaries. CGS staff is roughly a 10th of that.

Building a Scottish Olympic Association would be an immense, potentially costly job. Finding staff will be challenging. The BOA recruitment trawl has been global.

I have more pride and confidence in my countrymen and women than to suggest we don't have the people to do many of these jobs, but they will already be in good careers and will need to be lured. Not just with appeals to the heart.

Huge sums go from sportscotand to performance sport: just over a third of their £80m annual budget. Whether an independent Scotland can afford to continue that has to be the subject of debate. Before the Lottery was launched, we advocated a student-loan system.

Money should be repaid in future, over time, not disbursed without obligation. That may be considered more appropriate now.

Sportscotland invests enormously in Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sport. Almost 700 Scottish athletes were being supported at the time of Glasgow 2014 and 130 Scots were on UK Sport World Class programmes.

Those on UKS support also have some kind of Athlete Personal Awards, and 52% of Glasgow medallists received these from sportscotland.

The future for sport in an independent Scotland will be exciting, challenging. But not something to fear.