The Commonwealth Games
The 2026 Commonwealth Games take place in Scotland (mainly in Glasgow) from July 23 to August 2. There will be more than 3,000 athletes from 74 Commonwealth nations and territories who will compete at Glasgow 2026 across 215 medal events in 16 sports – 10 able-bodied and six integrated para sports. The ten sports are Athletics, basketball, bowls, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, Judo, netball, swimming and weightlifting. It will be the competition’s smallest sports program since 1994.
Founded in 1930 as the British Empire Games, the future of the event has been in doubt in recent years. The 2018 Games in Gold Coast, Australia were excellent. The 2022 Games were scheduled for Durban, South Africa, but Durban canceled, leaving Birmingham to pick up the pieces at short notice. Melbourne was to host in 2026 but pulled out because of the cost. Gold Coast’s offer to step in was vetoed by the Australian government – vetoed in the sense that they told Gold Coast that no federal funds were available. Glasgow stepped in with an offer of scaled-down games. CWG 2026, however, will feature the largest number of para sport events in the competition’s history, with 47 medal events scheduled across six integrated sports.
As far as Athletics goes, Glasgow hosting in 2014 used Hampden Park, the national football/soccer stadium, spending months putting in a track in a 50,000-capacity stadium. This year athletics will be in Scotstoun, an 11,000-capacity stadium. I am writing this on the day the games start, when it is reported that 500,000 tickets remain unsold.
The track and field program, lasting six days with long morning and evening sessions, starts on Monday 27 July.
