London post office engineer Ian Scott had a long cycling career and was still entering, and winning, veterans events well into his 50’s. A lifelong member of the Marlborough Cycling Club in London, he served the club as a vice-president, and was also a member of the General Council of the National Cyclists’ Union (NCU).
Scott won a silver medal with the Great Britain road race team at the 1948 London Olympics, alongside Bob Maitland, Tiny Thomas, and Ernie Clements. In finishing 16th (out of 101 starters), Scott was the third best-placed British rider. Just a few months before the Olympics, Scott, Alan Bannister, Tommy Godwin and Dave Ricketts were members of a British touring team to South Africa and they knocked nearly six seconds off the Western Province 4,000 metres team pursuit record. Three years earlier Scott, along with Godwin, Reg Harris and Lou Pond represented the NCU in a contest against France in Paris. Scott was a Southern Counties and London champion, and in 1947 was runner-up to Roy Waters in the National 25-mile Unpaced Championship.