Jodie Mullen has some pretty big shoes to fill in the her household, with father Eddie the first-ever Scot to represent Great Britain in Olympic judo at the 1972 Munich Games. 

Both perversely fight at the -63kg weight category; while in a prophetic twist of fate, father Eddie’s book is called ‘Making A Champion’.

Jodie is realistic enough to know London 2012 will have crept up on her a little too quickly but the Edinburgh Judo Club member admits to already having one-eye on Rio in 2016.

She has already tasted major international competition at the European Junior Championships last summer and having been handpicked to join the Bank of Scotland Local Heroes initiative, and as a result will receive a cash boost of £1000, Jodie is dreaming of success. 

“It’s great to be recognised, and it’s been so impressive to be given experience by former Olympians,” said Jodie, referring to the expert tuition she received at the Bank of Scotland workshop from triple Olympic medallist Katherine Grainger. “It makes you look forward and think what you might be able to achieve.

“I’ve just moved up from the juniors to the seniors so there are a lot more competitions in Britain this year, hopefully I can improve my ranking.

“The British Open will be the big event of the year in Crawley, and it’ll be the first time I’ve competed in it. 

“To see a home Olympics will be amazing, I’ll be too young to compete at 2012 because there are a lot of top level guys in their 30s. But I’d love to go and watch the Brits compete. 

“I might be in a better position to go to Rio, and if I had the chance to go to the Commonwealths and perform in Glasgow - that would be amazing.”

Bank of Scotland Local Heroes, in partnership with SportsAid, provides support and funding to 82 emerging Scottish athletes on their journey to London 2012 and beyond.  Follow Scotland’s future stars of TeamGB and ParalympicsGB at: www.bankofscotland.co.uk/localheroes

Sam Green, Sportsbeat