When Nissan's marketeers decided they wanted someone to try to float their Note in an advert, they could hardly have turned to someone more suited than the aptly named Polly Swann.
Rowing a car along the Olympic course at Eton Dorney was a rather odd thing to be doing, but the 25-year-old world champion from Edinburgh has had stranger days within the past year.
Swann was the woman selected to replace not just any old Olympian, but one of the pair who started last year's British Olympic gold rush.
It could hardly have been a more formidable challenge and, for all that courses normally negotiated are on the flattest water, yesterday's theme park-style photo-shoot was, in its way, quite suitable. The emotional wringer she has been through very much fits the old "roller-coaster" cliche.
Watching her international colleagues spearhead our Olympic challenge as it recovered from a sluggish start had been a bitter-sweet experience in itself. She revelled in the atmosphere while ruing her own injury-enforced absence. Initially selected to stroke the women's eight, she had been forced out by the latest of the back problems to have interrupted her progress since her teens; a problem that resulted in four painful months of rehab.
Her fortunes could hardly have changed more dramatically on her return to full fitness. Paul Thompson, the GB team's head coach, decided that she should have the chance to partner Helen Glover, the woman who, along with Heather Stanning, had won the first of Britain's Olympic golds in the coxless pairs.
"We did not know one another that well so it was quite daunting for me when we were put together for a few sessions. I was thinking: 'I can't mess things up for her . . .' but we did a few training pieces against other teams and went well right away, beating partnerships that were established," she explained.
"It really worked straightaway and it was really exciting. Once we realised that, it was great and I didn't really feel any pressure because it was totally new. Neither of us had any expectations. We knew we were rowing well but didn't know how we'd go against the rest of the world." They know now.
One victory followed another on the World Cup circuit last season, until they went into last month's World Championships in Korea as clear favourites and duly won.
The former George Heriot's pupil had proved herself a worthy successor to Gordonstoun product Stanning and now, as a new season gets underway, she is taking the time to reset her sights.
"I watched the Olympics last season, and all my friends and colleagues doing so well, but I was bitterly disappointed not to be competing with them," she admitted. "That has given me a drive to make the most of this opportunity. I would definitely like to think there will be no more driven competitor at the Rio Olympics and, while it was a real shame to miss the home Games, it might be a bit more exciting to head to Rio. The party at the end could be even better. They know how to put on a carnival."
Having just enjoyed three weeks on the beach, properly relaxing, she knows that the hard work starts now. "It doesn't matter what your last result was in this sport," she said. "You can't rest on your laurels because you can be sure there will be someone on the other side of the world, who did not win the world championships, who will not be resting on theirs."
Swann was born in Lancaster but was brought up through the Scottish system and took considerable time to believe fully in her ability. In her early years, she even found the initial attention her success brought difficult to deal with, after being introduced to rowing in her third year at high school.
"People saw me as having loads of potential but that is a cursed word because you only have potential if you fulfil it," said Swann.
Even when she made the British under-23 team after going to Edinburgh University, the doubts remained. "I was delighted to fulfil a goal I'd had since I was 16 [in being selected for the international team]," she said. "But I didn't think I had the potential to go further at that stage because I thought the senior GB team were leagues and leagues above how I was rowing."
She has since proved her own assessment wrong and those who had saddled her with the 'potential' tag right. So much so that she has asked for, and is grateful for having received, further time off her medical studies in order to pursue her Olympic dream. "It shows how forward thinking they are as a university," she said, "because they have been so supportive, even before I was challenging for world titles."
Armed as she is with the experience of last year's bitter disappointment and the realisation that she is better now than she ever believed she could be, Swann insists she possesses even more potential. "I feel really fresh after these three weeks off and I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in," she said. "I don't feel that I am the fittest or the strongest I can be yet which excites me."
Any other women aiming to contest the coxless pairs at the Rio Olympics can consider themselves duly warned.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article