[2] He is the only person to have held British, Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic swimming titles at the same time.

[4][5][6] Fellow Olympic breaststroke gold medallist Duncan Goodhew considered him an "extraordinary talent" and "one of Britain's greatest ever athletes".

[8][14] It was there that he began to train intensively and develop his specialist stroke, the breaststroke under one of Britain's leading coaches Frank Thomas,[15][16] whom Wilkie credited with giving him the motivation to become a world class swimmer.

[15] In 1969, Wilkie swam representing Britain for the first time in an international swimming contest, where he came up against the Russian 200-metre breaststroke world record-holder Nikolai Pankin.

[15] He then won a bronze medal in front of his home crowd in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in the 200-metre breaststroke breaking his own British record again.

[15][17] He wore a swim cap for that event during the Commonwealth Games, making him the first elite swimmer to wear one in a major competition.

[17] Also in 1974 at the European Championships in Vienna, Austria, he won a gold in the 200-metre individual medley in a world record time.

[8] He was European Swimmer of the Year three times,[23] British Sports personality of the year in 1975,[26] in 1977 he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire,[27] in 1982 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame[23] and in 2002 was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

[36] Outdoor Swimmer magazine subsequently coined the phrase "the David Wilkie problem", meaning "the issue of how swimming pools manage their facilities to provide swimmers with a wide range of abilities, aspirations and expectations the best possible experience.