Why the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games could be most important yet

Sunday, 27 July 2025

ANALYSIS: Did you know Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro graced a swanky cocktail function in mid-week to mark a year to go to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games where ‘The Fern is all of Us’ campaign was launched?

The emailed reminder of the 365-day milestone blindsided many of us, arriving as it did in the heat of the All Blacks and Warriors seasons.

The initial response was “will anyone outside the New Zealand Olympic Committee still care about the Comm Games in 2026?”

It begins, after all, just a few days after the FIFA World Cup final in late July and ends around the start of the Rugby Championship, so attention may be elsewhere.

But anyone who treasures a tournament dating back almost 100 years, should give a fig. The athletes certainly will.

Next year’s Glasgow Games - the 23rd edition since the first British Empire Games in 1930 - will, arguably, be a watershed.

Kiwi shot putter Tom Walsh after taking the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He is likely to be back in Glasgow in 2026 seeking a third gold.

The pared-down version will feature just 10 sports - down from 19 in Birmingham in 2022 and 18 the last time Glasgow hosted in 2014.

Around 3000 athletes will compete, compared with over 4700 from 72 countries in 2022.

Just four already-existing venues will be used - all backing up from 2014.

Austerity has been imposed on the Commonwealth Games as much by accident as design.

When our Australian cobbers from Victoria - alarmed that costs could spiral to $6 billion - reneged on staging the 2026 jamboree, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) was hardly swamped with alternative host offers.

Valerie Adams leads the New Zealand team at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games opening ceremony.

Glasgow gallantly stepped in, with $200 million compensation from Victoria.

The Scottish organisers set about culling the number of sports with athletics, swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling, netball, weightlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and 3 x 3 basketball making the cut. Six of the 10 sports will also have a Paralympics programme.

So if there are so many fewer athletes and medal events, why will the ‘26 Games be the most important in decades?

Simply because they could set a template for the future and potentially save the movement.

The Games have grown exponentially in the 50 years since Christchurch - still the smallest host city - held the 1974 “Friendly’’ Games. There were 10 sports then and 1261 athletes from 38 countries.

The Comm Games once offered the only opportunity outside the Olympics for athletes to compete on the world stage. Now most sports now have world and regional championships.

Hence the Glasgow template seems more fit for purpose than its bloated predecessors.

The Birmingham Games cost the British Government $1.7 billion. No wonder countries aren’t queuing up to host them - although there is the prospect of a multi-city Canada bid for 2030.

The opening ceremony of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games kicks off in style at Celtic Park.

Sky TV was confirmed last week as the exclusive New Zealand and Pacific region broadcast partner, but the CGF is yet to sign up a British host broadcaster. The BBC has had the contract since the first televised Games in Vancouver in 1954, but a BBC.com report stated the state broadcaster had yet to reach agreement for 2026 amid talk of a “waning appetite’’ for the event.

If Glasgow can run a cost-effective event which still conveys the Comm Games spirit it may embolden other future bidders.

Glasgow will become the third city - after Auckland in 1950 and 1990 and Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986 - to host two Commonwealth Games.

They may set a new trend whereby the Games recycle around cities with existing infrastructure.

CGF secretary-general Katie Sadleir, a former New Zealand Olympic Games synchronised swimmer, has said “Kiwis love the Commonwealth Games’’.

Bowler Selina Goodard (R) was part of New Zealand’s bronze medal fours at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. She is still in the Black Jacks squad and could be set for a return to Glasgow in 2026.

That is certainly the case when the medals start flowing - and there should be a fair share in Glasgow.

Most of the focus will be on the elite sports - track and field, swimming and cycling.

Olympic champion high jumper Hamish Kerr will be expected to defend his Commonwealth crown, Erika Fairweather and Lewis Clareburt should rule at the pool, Ellesse Andrews should burn up the velodrome and the Silver Ferns will be in a three-way scrap with Australia and England.

So will any of New Zealand’s 45 medallists from 2014 strike gold in Glasgow 12 years on?

Most have retired, but Tom Walsh, a shot put silver medallist in ‘14 at 22, looks the best bet. The former chippy from Canterbury will be gunning for a third successive Commonwealth Games gold medal - a feat first achieved by the great Dame Valerie Adams.

So there will be Kiwi medals for jingoists to cheer. Just not as many as in the recent past.

A better barometer of success will be the confidence garnered from Glasgow that the Comm Games is sustainable and not an albatross around potential host cities’ necks.