LESS than a year after swimming in his third Olympics, the double Commonwealth gold medallist David Carry has been appointed a director of Scottish Swimming – the sport's most successful competitor ever to reach board status.

Of six Scottish swimmers at London 2012, the Aberdonian, the oldest member of the team, is the only one to have retired, a decision that casts him as a Glasgow 2014 spectator when he has been a fixture in the pool itself at the Commonwealth Games since 2002.

The 31-year-old retains stereotypical athlete positivity. You don't reach the upper echelons of international sport without believing that grinding out tiny daily increments can take you to a place that once looked beyond impossible. "Our swimmers have a huge opportunity to put London 2012 to bed," he said yesterday, agreeing that three medals from 23 finalists last summer was poor. "Britain did not achieve what we wanted in the medal count, but over achieved in the number of finalists. More and more of our swimmers are now competitive on the world stage and it's a case of converting that to medals."

Carry's five Scottish colleagues at London 2012 (silver medallist Michael Jamieson, Hannah Miley, Caitlin McClatchey, Craig Benson and Robbie Renwick) have, he says: "A fantastic opportunity to step up again – the ultimate motivation. That top end is really exciting and the structure underneath is absolutely designed to get people to be competitive on the world stage.

"The longer vision is from huge investment in facilities. When I was coming through, only Edinburgh was available, and occasionally five lanes at East Kilbride. It was not a competition venue any more, and even Edinburgh was not fully international, with issues on depth.

"Now there are Stirling and Tollcross. Aberdeen and Dundee are coming on, mini-hubs that will cater for those looking to perform at the highest level. The coaching development scheme – how they look after resources – I think is exceptional."

Rarely have we heard such ringing endorsement of a national sports body from a current, or so recently-retired competitor. His tone is doubly remarkable given Carry is a director of Red Sky Management, a company that looks after the interests of more than 20 international rugby players, and a similar number of internationalists in a dozen other sports. Many are Olympians and five are swimmers, whose sport seen as a bastion of the amateur ethic and slow to embrace commercialism.

Carry's position seems less poacher turned gamekeeper, more otter in the fish ladder. Is there not a danger of conflict of interest? Of his helping clients of the company which pays his salary to optimise income from the sport itself?

"Certainly not," he said. "I will take the Red Sky hat off to help advise and direct Scottish Swimming. I see it as two very different roles. My role at Red Sky is not to act as their agent. I'm not involved in any of their day-to-day management. I'm very much on the business side of things, heading leadership courses and one-to-one business courses. I use stories from sport to inspire and facilitate performance in other people.

"I am so passionate about leaving a lasting legacy in an organisation that has helped me perform. I'll be using my knowledge of performance to help offer a strategic overview to the sport. I really believe I would not have been able to perform at the level I did if I'd been born anywhere else. Scotland has an amazing ability to look after its athletes, nurture them, and bring them through. I was a late developer – my first international was at 20 – yet Scottish Swimming offered me a huge amount of support and I will be doing all I can to see that's paid back in the proper way."

Carry himself raised the issue of his day job during his interview with Scottish Swimming, "addressing it before they did". He said: "Integrity was a huge part of my competitive career, and that's not going to change . . . I am very keen to promote swimming as a whole and help broaden its commercial marketability.

"Performance is very close to my heart but I am not going to be involved in day-to-day dealing with sponsors and promoting sponsorship deals for Scottish Swimming. The board are very aware of my role at Red Sky. I am grateful they are willing to have me involved. It's a brave decision, not the traditional way of doing things. I am excited to have the chance of making an impact."

Carry will have a role to play next year but is keeping details under wraps. Competitively, he is suffering no withdrawal symptoms, despite the fact his wife, Keri-Anne Payne, is intent on defending her world 10k title in Barcelona this year. She may even continue until 2014, at 800m or in the 400m individual medley at which she took bronze in Delhi.

"Getting to the [400 m freestyle] final in London was the absolute top end I could have hoped for," says Carry. "Immense. But immediately something changed. I did not see the point of training for 6000 metres. It was instant, even though I'd committed to training with Keri-Anne, who had the Olympic open water race the following week. It was the hardest four or five sessions I've ever done. I thought it would be easy accompanying her, but it was incredibly difficult without a personal reason.

"That first session, I dived into the training pool and thought, 'Why am I doing this? This isn't what I want to do'. It really took me by surprise."

Carry rates last year's performance greater than his double Commonwealth triumph, world and European medals, or UK records. Being told his starts and turns were poor and had cost him a Beijing Olympic final place, was, he said, "a big hit to my ego". He did the work to correct that, then got injured. It was suggested his career was over, yet he came back to swim the fastest time of his life at 30.

"Walking out to be introduced on the blocks for that final was the most intensely brilliant moment of my career. I wouldn't change any of it for the world."