SCOTLAND is producing some great athletes at the moment, and none more so than Laura Muir – what an absolute star. Laura won the Best Newcomer Award at the 2015 SWiS Annual Awards and she has grown in stature on a daily basis ever since. Whatever it is Scottish Athletics has at the moment, I am sure many other sports would like just a little piece of it.

While I have read that there is a bit of controversy over who has had the most influence in Laura’s career, I agree with one social-media punter who politely said that it was a partnership. However, I believe some of the biggest influencers have been those she worked with in her early life – her parents, her school and her athletics club, who all must have been extremely supportive and really deserve recognition also. Laura seems to be very well grounded and as well as her athletics she is also studying to be a vet; she balances her studies with the pressure and pleasures of winning at her sport, which doesn’t necessarily make for an easy mix, but it is something that she carries of extremely well. We will hear more from Laura, I’m sure, over the next few years.

I haven’t read details of the viewing figures for last week’s Uefa Women’s Championship Final but, with more than 3.3 million people tuning in to the quarter-final, the prediction for the final’s viewing figures, which was in excess of that, must be on target.

Now it is all over and we have a deserved winner. What a great final we had and for the Netherlands it was an absolute fairytale moment for the host country to become eventual winners.

It was a great advert for football and more so for all the women involved in the event. There was one Scotswoman involved in the final who will play a very important role in the game going forward, a name that perhaps is not particularly well known and isn’t exactly at the forefront of the sport. However, SWiS trustee Kayleigh Grieve has recently taken up the position of women’s football marketing manager at Uefa and is consequently tasked with making football the number one participatory sport in Europe.

During the Women’s Euro she was responsible for some of the inspiring content and footage that you may have seen under the banner of the campaign Together #WePlayStrong.

Kayleigh’s role involves transforming the image of the game, increasing its visibility and driving higher engagement, which during WEuro meant creating exciting, cool content and using new platforms such as Musical.ly to reach young girls in their world, by tapping in to their key social influencers and therefore, hopefully, inspiring them to take up the game.

With record levels of attendances, viewership and engagement Kayleigh will be looking to capitalise on the huge swell of goodwill towards the game at the moment in order to drive forward participation and investment.

The influence of social media can’t be underestimated. Get it right, as in the case of Uefa recently, and it is one of the strongest tools you can use to engage with the public. Scotland, who came home after the qualifying round, must now look at how they move forward and prepare for the next big tournament, the World Cup. Shelley Kerr, who is waiting in the wings to take over the role of women’s head coach, will have her own ideas on exactly how to do this. Shelley, who was in the Netherlands to check out the opposition for the group stages of the World Cup, must now decide on how she will shape the team for the future. With some really bright moments, particularly from some of the younger players like Erin Cuthbert and Caroline Weir, I’m sure that she is relishing getting her feet under the desk and getting started on the task in hand.

Finally, good luck to all of the Scots who are currently participating in the Special Olympics until August 12 in Sheffield. This is the country’s largest multi-sports event for athletes with intellectual disabilities, held every four years and which offers a great opportunity to showcase the talent that we have here in Scotland. Fun, friendship and creating your own personal best – that is what they are aiming for. Sounds to me like a recipe for success.