KATHLEEN Dawson’s life is almost unrecognisable in comparison to this time last year. Twelve months ago, the 19-year-old was living with her parents in her home town of Warrington, she was a relative unknown outwith the swimming world and she had yet to make any real mark on the international scene. Fast-forward 12 months and Dawson is now living in Stirling and training with the University of Stirling swim team and has two European medals in her trophy cabinet, one of which is a gold.

Her progression has been remarkable but Dawson has long been touted as a potential star of Scottish swimming. The backstroker won two silver medals at the European Junior Championships in 2013 and then the following year, at the age of 16, she was the youngest member of Scotland’s swimming team at Glasgow 2014, where she finished in an impressive fifth place in the 50m backstroke. It was 2016 that was Dawson’s real breakthrough year though, with those two medals confirming her talent and to add to that, she became the first Scottish woman to break the one-minute barrier for the 100m backstroke.

Dawson’s form last season bodes well for this year. The teenager goes into next week’s British Championships in Sheffield – which also serves as the trials for this summer’s World Championships team – in even better form than last year with the primary difference being that over the past 12 months, Dawson’s confidence in herself and her own ability has increased exponentially: “I’m really looking forward to the trials because compared to last year, I’m a lot happier and I have much more belief in myself that I can achieve my goal which is to make the team for the World Championships,” she said.

“My belief has improved for a few reasons: doing well at the Europeans last year has helped and also, having gone into the programme at Stirling, I’m really confident with what my coach Ben [Higson] has been telling me to do and I’ve already been seeing the results for myself. So I’m really happy with how everything is going.”

Dawson may still be only a teenager but she has already experienced the highs and lows of elite sport. While her European medals last summer were an obvious high point, just a few weeks previously she had experienced one of the lowest points of her career. Going into the British trials for the Rio Olympic Games, Dawson had a realistic chance of making the team but she underperformed meaning she was left at home while a number of her compatriots jetted off to Brazil. It taught her a harsh lesson but it is an experience that has changed her mindset entirely: “I feel like I learnt a lot from my experience at trials last year – it really made me realise that I’m doing this sport for fun and that actually, it’s not the end of the world if I don’t perform well,” she said.

“At the end of the day, the reason I swim is because I love it but I really didn’t enjoy myself at trials last year and that’s not how I want to be. It’s definitely changed my mindset and that can make a big difference to me this year.

“I’ll be going to this year’s trials with such a good team behind me and team-mates that I love being around so I’m really looking forward to that. I don’t really set myself specific targets going into a meet like this – as long as I’m enjoying myself, that’s the main thing. And if I enjoy myself that’s when I swim well.”

It is no surprise that Dawson is already reaping the results of her move to Stirling. Combining her sports studies degree with her training can sometimes be, she admits, slightly tricky, as has been the travails of learning to cook for herself. But with the university boasting one of the most successful swimming programmes in Europe, the quality of her training is in no doubt. With training partners of the calibre of Ross Murdoch, Duncan Scott and Craig Benson amongst others, it would be almost impossible for Dawson to fail to improve.

It bodes well for the coming seasons: in under a year, the teenager will, all going to plan, compete in her second Commonwealth Games. And while the 2020 Olympics are still over three years away, Dawson already has an eye on Tokyo.

“My expectations are definitely higher going into next year’s Commonwealth Games compared to Glasgow 2014. It’s only really started to dawn on me in the past month that I finished fifth in Glasgow so I really could medal in Gold Coast,” she said.

“I’ve always had people around me that fully believe in me: my coach in Warrington believed that I could be one of the fastest backstrokers in the world and Ben does too, so when people keep on believing in you and as long as I continue putting the work in, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t believe it too.”