SCOTTISH swimmer Andrew Mullen is the face of "Legends will Rise" the campaign launched yesterday for the forthcoming IPC Swimming World Championships to be staged at Glasgow's Tollcross in July.

Mullen, at 18, is already a legend, however. At 14 when he took two World silver medals and a bronze; at 15 he competed in London 2012, and last year, at 17, he won four golds and a silver at the European Championships.

He competes in the S5 category, for athletes with impairment to three limbs. He has one leg shorter than the other and short arms, yet he has posted a faster time at 200 metres freestyle than the 1904 Olympic bronze medallist. His medley time is quicker than the gold-medal 200m breaststroke performance at the 1920 Olympics, and in the gym, his ability to pump iron, and do squats on one leg, out-performs many with no impairment.

Rather than dwell on the past, Andrew is focused on the World trials which begin at Tollcross a week tomorrow. From Newton Mearns, and a first-year student of financial investment and risk at Glasgow Caledonian University, he makes no concessions.

"I've heard it described as a congenital limb disorder," he says, "but I have never really asked, to be honest. I do not think about what I can't do. I've never thought what I would have been able to do if I had not been disabled. I don't see much to gain by lingering on those thoughts. I've always accepted what I have, learned to deal with it, and done everything I can with what I have."

His coach, Andrew Jackson, works him has hard as his mainstream athletes. Mullen is stretching in the Linwood gym, music blaring, at 5.15am, and is in the water by 6am. He spends 16-18 hours a week in the pool, and up to six in the gym. Strength and conditioning coaches at the West of Scotland Institute of Sport have devised exercises using straps and stirrups.

"A lot of the time it's hard to remember he has a disability," says Jackson. "Nothings stops him. The aim is to make him smoother, more controlled, and as co-ordinated as possible. Physical maturity and technique refinement will bring the speed we are looking for.

"He's the top swimmer in Europe - one of the youngest in S5, but there's scope for two silver medals, and possibly better, at the Rio Paralympics next year. There could be two or three medals."

Mullen swam personal bests in 12 races, morning and evening, in last year's Europeans, only athlete at the meeting to do so. There was even a European record in his final race.

"The 2012 Paralympics was like a home Games, but the Worlds in Glasgow will be just 20 minutes from where I live - like my backyard," says Andrew. "It is a huge deal, yet it's just a stepping stone to Rio. I want to go there and improve my times as much as I can, and pick up as good a medal as possible."

Passing his driving test recently has been liberating. "It's a massive help being able to drive wherever I need to, at whatever time. It's increased my flexibility, so I can get more training in. I'm forever grateful to my parents for doing the taxi runs, but it just gives me so much more freedom.

"Getting my wheelchair in and out the car is not a problem. I am really good at just folding it up and putting it in the boot."

Does he get irritated by perceptions of what he can do?

"Some people are a bit over-protective - cautious about asking me to do certain things. They're scared I won't be able to do it. They are just unaware, and trying to do what they think is right. You have to accept that some people do not have the same degree of knowledge about disability."

That was such an issue when Andrew started. "Mum took me to swimming when I was seven. I loved it: no real barriers and an even playing field. In the pool I could do anything anybody else could."

Yet mum had to resort to subterfuge to get him into a club. "My sister, Eilidh [who has no impairment] was going for a trial at REN 96. Mum chucked me in the pool. When they saw I was a reasonable swimmer, they let me join."

Unfortunately, Andrew's best event, the individual medley, is no longer on the Paralympic programme. The 50m back crawl is now his main focus. Just an Chris Hoy had his gold-medal event removed from the Olympics, and found new ones in which to triumph, Mullen has a similar approach. "It's just another challenge," he says. "There's no point wasting time and energy on negatives. That's a philosophy that has been instilled in me since I was young."

The IPC World Championships run from July 13-19. Visit:

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