Daring to be different!
by John Cushing, February 2025
Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games will get a lot of criticism over the next year and a bit as its rescues the multi sporting event from oblivion. We’ve discussed it on the podcast so many times, after Victoria in Australia pulled out of staging in 2026, the Commonwealth Games Federation was struggling to reach its centenary in 2030. So firstly, I’d like to applaud Team Scotland and the new organising committee for stepping up and stepping in. Secondly, they should also be praised for daring to be different.
The return of the ‘Commonwealth Mile’ for example instead of the 1500m on the athletics track in Scotstoun. It was an idea first muted by the man in charge of World Athletics Lord Coe and now after asking around and gaining support from Scotland’s brilliant middle distance fraternity of Josh Kerr, Laura Muir, Jemma Reekie and Jake Wightman, there’s a men’s MILE gold medal available for the first time since 1966 and the first ever for women. Track fans of a certain vintage tell me all about the ‘The Miracle Mile’ at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada in 1954. England's Roger Bannister and Australian John Landy – the only two sub-four-minute runners in the world at the time – went head to head only two months after Bannister became the first athlete to break that record. If the Commonwealth Games is to be relevant and get the world’s best athletes there, then doing something different is right.
It’s the same with the Para sport. The Olympics is a two week wonder show but despite one of the 7 presidential candidates vying to take-over from Thomas Bach next month, saying they wanted closer ties with the IPC that run the Paralympics, it seems that never the twain shall meet. So Glasgow 2026 organisers are rightly leading the way and showing the future of the Commonwealth Games - more Para sport than ever before, at the same time as non Para athletes in action. Daring to be different and giving the world an alternative. I appreciate some Para athletes events might not be included, and there’ll be criticism of the organisers for that. But it’s the same argument to the sports who missed out on the shortlist for the Scottish Games next summer, which only includes 10 sports. If Glasgow 2026 hadn’t dared to be different and deliver the Games - there wouldn’t be a Commonwealth Games in the future for the other sports to return, or the Para events to compete as equals.
History will made in Glasgow 2026 with indoor bowls instead of lawn, the biggest ever 3x3 basketball competition, more swimming and track cycling events than ever before. In our latest podcast, we hear from some of the athletes aiming to be at the Games.
So let’s applaud the organisers for confirming the 200 gold medal moments and the sporting programme this week. Let’s not sit and criticise on social media, or moan and groan about what’s there or not there. Let’s look forward to a truly inclusive festival of sport. And there will be standout moments next summer as world class sport always delivers. You just have to dare!
