Scottish sports minister Shona Robison has said the government wants to field independent teams separate from Team GB at the Olympics and Paralympics at Rio 2016 - if the country votes for independence in a year's time.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Robison - who is a Scottish National Party MSP - claimed Scotland would meet the strict conditions in order to become an Olympic nation.

She didn’t however, outline how the athletes would be funded. All Scottish athletes are currently part of the Team GB elite programmes and receive their income from London-based UK Sport.

Robison insisted that Scottish athletes “would not be disadvantaged” by independence, even though they would be denied access to the current funding streams and high performance facilities.

For Scotland to become an Olympic nation in its own right, it would need to be an independent state and to have at least five national federations affiliated to international federations with sports included in the Olympic programme.

In response to Robison's claims, a spokesperson for the British Olympic Association (BOA) said the organisation would wait until the referendum to address any possible issues. The referendum deciding whether Scotland will become an independent nation or stay as part of the United Kingdom will be held on 18 September 2014.

A total of 55 of Team GB’s 542 athletes at the London 2012 Olympics were Scottish. As an independent nation, Scotland would have won 12 medals during the Games - an equal haul to those achieved by Belarus, Iran and Jamaica.