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By Alan Baldwin
PARIS (Reuters) - Duncan Scott has won quite a lot since now-disgraced Chinese swimmer Sun Yang branded him a loser at the 2019 world championships.
The jibe, uttered after he and Australian Mack Horton refused to shake hands with Sun and join him on the 200 metres freestyle podium in Gwangju, remains an ironic badge of honour for Britain's most decorated Olympic swimmer.
Paris is Scott's third Games and the 27-year-old, who has yet to win an individual Olympic gold, has every chance of adding to his collection of six medals.
Sun, whose 400 freestyle gold at London 2012 made him the first Chinese man to win an Olympic swimming title, ended a four-year ban for doping last May and is not competing having also missed Tokyo 2021.
Scott will be up against 200 individual medley (IM) Olympic champion Wang Shun and reigning 100 freestyle world record holder Pan Zhanle, with China again making waves after doping controversy.
France's five times world champion Leon Marchand, who smashed Michael Phelps' 15-year 400 IM world record last July, is another big rival -- probably the biggest.
"I donโt know if I can say Iโm going up against him. Iโve never beaten him," Scott told reporters recently regarding the Frenchman who beat him in the 200 IM final at the 2023 Fukuoka world championships.
"I need to have that humility, I donโt want to go out there and say Iโd love to race someone Iโve never beaten.
"At the worlds it was really nice for me being able to be next to him, it was the first time Iโve been sort of head-to-head -- or as far as I could in the race be head-to-head with him," added the Scot.
Marchand, trained in the United States by Phelps's old coach Bob Bowman, won gold in the 200 and 400 IM and 200 butterfly in Fukuoka but skipped this year's event in Doha.
Scott won silver in the 200 IM in Fukuoka, after 4x200 freestyle relay gold, 200 freestyle, 200 IM and 4x100 IM silver at the Tokyo Olympics.
He also won two relay silvers at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
At the British championships in April, Scott won the 200 IM title and also qualified for Paris in the 100m and 200m freestyle as well as relays.
"Iโm going to go in with quite an open mind. I know if Iโm able to swim at my best in each of the events, Iโm going to give myself quite a good chance," said the Scot, who set personal bests in all his finals in Tokyo.
"At 27 I think Iโm still pretty young in the sport, so thereโs still plenty of life in that with how Iโve been performing over the last few years. I think thereโs still plenty of improvement.
"For me something that really motivates me is can I continually improve and get better?"
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
