The plan to ‘reset’ and ‘redefine’ the Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has confirmed that the 2026 Games will take place in Glasgow and also outlined the blueprint to what CEO Katie Sadlier called a “bridge to the Commonwealth Games of tomorrow”.

Following the 2023 decision by the Australian state of Victoria to drop the Games, many had questioned its future. The 22 October CGF announcement outlined ten sports for 2026 in what Reuters described as a “pared down edition” of the multi-sport event.

Federation CEO Katie Sadleir said in the CGF statement that “the Games promise to be a truly immersive festival of sport and celebration of culture and diversity that inspires athletes and sports – with a fan experience more accessible than ever before”.

She added: ‘’With the Commonwealth Games held in such high esteem by athletes, sports and nations across the Commonwealth, we have been working tirelessly with our fellow stakeholders to ensure a high-quality Games will take place in 2026 – securing this vital milestone in the career pathway for thousands of athletes.

‘’The 2026 Games will be a bridge to the Commonwealth Games of tomorrow – an exciting first step in our journey to reset and redefine the Games as a truly collaborative, flexible and sustainable model for the future that minimises costs, reduces the environmental footprint, and enhances social impact – in doing so increasing the scope of countries capable of hosting.”

‘Lighter and leaner’

Reuters quoted Commonwealth Games Scotland chief executive Jon Doig as stating that: “Glasgow 2026 will have all the drama, passion and joy that we know the Commonwealth Games delivers even if it is to be lighter and leaner than some previous editions … It will be more accessible, delivered on a smaller footprint which brings our fans closer to the sporting action”.

The slimmed-down version of the Games comes as no surprise to Commonwealth insiders who have been offering solutions and suggestions across 2024 on how to keep the event going.

Jon Doig was quoted in the CGF statement as saying that the “focus was on creating a Games that was different – that could be delivered to the highest quality, in the short time frame, in a financially sustainable way”.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney said in the statement that “While Glasgow 2026 will look quite different to previous Games, we can, and we must, use this as an opportunity to work collaboratively to ensure that this new concept brings a strong and sustainable future for the Games. The Scottish Government is committed to playing its part in building that new vision.”

‘Inclusivity, fraternity and community’

On 14 September, the week before the announcement, Tessa Sanderson CBE outlined her history with the Commonwealth Games at the fourth Patsy Roberston Memorial Lecture entitled Sport, Development and the Commonwealth at the Commonwealth Secretariat headquarters at Marlborough House.

She then outlined the importance of the Commonwealth Games. Here’s an excerpt from her lecture, shared with the Round Table by the Commonwealth Association:

The Commonwealth Games is currently facing an uncertain future. Last year, in an unprecedented move, the State of Victoria, in Australia, and due to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, announced that it was no longer prepared to do so, and was pulling out.

Naturally, this was not only a considerable shock for all involved, but it presented the Commonwealth Games Federation with the formidable task of finding a replacement host in a rapidly shrinking timescale. In September, it was announced that the great Scottish city of Glasgow was ready to host a re-purposed 2026 Commonwealth Games. If so, I am very positive that Glasgow, as Scotland did in my time of competing and as I experienced in 2014, will host another exciting Commonwealth Games showcasing some of the world’s best athletes.

However, those months of uncertainty inevitably led to media coverage of a familiar kind…. What was the point of the Commonwealth Games? Surely it was neither one thing nor the other – neither a universal, elite sports event, nor a regional championship.

And then there was some of the familiar charges, such as ‘this Commonwealth is no more than an imperial hangover, fostering neo-colonial delusions.’? And so on.

Well, please allow me to answer that…

As a supporter of the Commonwealth, a child of the Commonwealth, and a believer with all other Commonwealth Games’ participants past and present:  we believe in the unique value of the Commonwealth Games and the great pathway it has prepared for many to achieve success in sport.

Victoria drops the Commonwealth Games
Off track: Are the fun and Games over for the Commonwealth?
Glasgow, the referendum and the Commonwealth Games

A future for the Commonwealth Games

So, does the Commonwealth Games have a future? I believe it does, and for the following three reasons:

First, while the Commonwealth Games is not universal and therefore does not include major sporting nations, like China and the United States, the sporting talent it brings together across the world still allows athletes to excel at the highest level. As I mentioned, the Games provided me with my first opportunity to compete at a senior level and it remained an important part of my sporting calendar throughout my career. World records (as well as Commonwealth records) are regularly broken (four at Birmingham in 2022 and nine at Glasgow in 2014).  Indeed, competing in the Commonwealth Games created the opportunity for me to succeed at the highest level and I grabbed it with both hands.

Equally so, I have rubbed shoulders with the stars of numerous sports over the years who have come to compete at the modern Commonwealth Games. For example, Usain Bolt, after his record-breaking, three Gold medal haul at the 2012 London Olympics, went to Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. There he was part of Jamaica’s 4 x 100m relay team, winning Gold and setting a new Commonwealth record. There have been many other legends of sport at the Games, and I can tell you that every athlete loved every minute spent at the Games.

Second, the Commonwealth Games has been a ground breaker in creating a fully inclusive sporting event. Many Commonwealth participants come from small states and territories, and the Commonwealth Games provides an opportunity to showcase the talent, experience and expertise of their athletes and coaches alike.

A good example is St Lucia, from the Eastern Caribbean, which first sent a team to the Commonwealth Games in 1962. The country’s first Commonwealth medal, a Bronze, came in 2002 at the Manchester Games. Further Bronze medals were won in 2010 (at New Delhi) and in 2014 (Glasgow). St Lucia won a Commonwealth Gold medal in 2018, at the Gold Coast in Australia, and a Silver at the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, in 2022. This year, at the Paris Olympics, St Lucia won its first Olympic medals, with Julien Alfred winning Gold in the women’s 100m and Silver in the women’s 200m.

The Commonwealth Games has also steadily advanced women’s sports, with women’s athletic events introduced in 1934. Four years later Decima Norman, an Australian, won five gold medals at the Sydney Games.

In the 1960s, Dawn Fraser, also representing Australia, had unparalleled success in swimming events. In 1990, at the Auckland Games, I well remember a young Aboriginal athlete, Cathy Freeman, winning a Gold medal in the 4 x 100m relay, and thereby pioneering the inclusion of indigenous peoples in the Games also. At the last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, in 2022, more medals were awarded to women than to men, for the first time in the history of a major multi-sport event.

Perhaps the most dramatic advance in inclusivity came with the full integration of para sport within the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. This meant that there was no segregation in ticketing for para-sports events, and medals won in para-sports contributed to the relevant nation’s tally in the same way as for any other event.

Likewise, the Commonwealth Youth Games, for 14–18-year-olds, are now staged every four years, most recently in Trinidad and Tobago in 2023.

So, the Commonwealth Games is about athletic excellence, it is about inclusivity, but it is also, third, about fraternity and community.

The Commonwealth is sometimes described as a network of networks. One of its characteristics is the ease which comes from sharing not just a connection between nations but between peoples also, based on a common language, shared traditions and, above all, common values. That is particularly so of sport where the Commonwealth Games is a celebration of our unity, but which also reveals the amazing kaleidoscope of cultures, talents and individuals that reflect our rich diversity as a global network.

That feeling of fraternity is, I hope, felt by our athletes, by our spectators (whether at sports events or watching the Games by global television) and by everyone of the staff and volunteers involved. 

The full lecture delivered by Tessa Sanderson is available from the Commonwealth Association.

The inaugural Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture – Ann Gallagher

The second Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture – Malcolm Rifkind

The 2023 Patsy Robertson Memorial Lecture – Cherisse Francis