Elinor Middlemiss has been appointed as Team Scotland’s Chef de Mission for the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.  

Middlemiss will lead Team Scotland for a second Games, following a highly successful Birmingham 2022 which saw the team celebrate their best medal tally ever at a Games outside Scotland.  She currently serves as Commonwealth Games Scotland’s Head of Games Operations and had previously served as Deputy Chef de Mission at both Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018. 

Scotland’s highest capped female Badminton player of all-time, Elinor represented Team Scotland at five Commonwealth Games winning a Women’s Doubles bronze medal with Sandra Watt in 1998 and Team bronze in 2002.  

When appointed to the Chef de Mission role for Birmingham 2022, she became the first woman in this post since the Games began in 1930, and the first former Commonwealth Games athlete to lead the Scottish team since Sir Peter Heatly in 1978. 

Elinor Middlemiss, Team Scotland Chef de Mission, Victoria 2026, said: 

“I’m honoured to have been asked to take on the role of Chef de Mission for a second time at Victoria 2026. I’m very much looking forward to the journey over the next three years and making it a memorable and successful experience for every member of the team. 

“I had an excellent team around me in Birmingham and building that strong group of Team Management will be key again for Victoria 2026.” 

Paul Bush OBE, Chair of Commonwealth Games Scotland said:  

“I am delighted to welcome Elinor back to the Chef de Mission role for Victoria 2026. The planning for an overseas Games will, of course, be very different to a Games close to home in Birmingham, something of which Elinor has valuable experience. What does not change is the commitment to ensuring our athletes are given the best possible preparation and the right environment in which to excel.” 

The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in five regional hubs across the State of Victoria, Australia from 17-29 March. 

Team Scotland is delighted to announce that we will be represented across all seven sports at this year’s Trinbago 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games, following confirmation of team sport participation.

Invites were accepted from the Commonwealth Games Federation for Scottish
participants in the Women’s Beach Volleyball, Netball and Men’s Rugby 7s, with those team sports joining young Scottish athletes in Athletics, Cycling, Swimming and Triathlon.

Having begun in Edinburgh in 2000, the seventh edition of the Youth Games will take place from 4-11 August this year in Trinidad and Tobago, with seven sports split across the two islands. All three team sports will take place on Tobago along with Triathlon, with the rest on Trinidad.

Trinbago 2023 will see the first appearance of a Scottish Men’s Rugby 7s team at a Youth Games since the Isle of Man Games in 2011. Several players from that team went on to represent Team Scotland at a senior Games including Birmingham 2022 captain Jamie Farndale, who took on the same role for the Youth Games side in 2011. Scotland will face Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Jamaica, Fiji and South Africa in the 6-team tournament this summer.

Beach Volleyball made its Youth Games debut at the last edition, Bahamas 2017, where Emma Waldie and Jennifer Lee took 4th place. It is set for its second appearance at Trinbago 2023, with a 12- team tournament taking place at Pigeon Point Beach, including all three medal winning nations from 2017: Australia, New Zealand and Rwanda.

Netball makes its Youth Games debut in a Fast 5 format with five players to a side, shorter quarters, power plays, and super shots. Team Scotland will be one of eight teams taking to the courts at Tobago Shaw Park Cultural Complex alongside hosts Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, England, South Africa, Botswana, Canada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Team Scotland Chef de Mission, Chris Purdie said: “I am delighted that we have received and accepted invitations from Trinbago 2023 to compete in Beach Volleyball, Netball and Rugby 7s, meaning Team Scotland will be represented in all seven sports on the programme.

“The team sports bring a special dimension to the team and we hope that the opportunity to experience a multi-sport Games will be an important part in the development for all athletes selected.”

Individual athlete selection for all three team sports and the four individual sports will be made over the coming months.

Four-time Commonwealth Games medallist Aileen McGlynn has announced her retirement from cycling after 20 years competing at the top level.

The 49 year old has called time on a stellar career that saw her win seven Paralympic Games medals and a host of World titles, set numerous world records and be awarded an OBE for Services to Disability Sport, in addition to her Commonwealth Games success.

Winning gold and silver in her first Paralympic Games in Athens 2004, double gold at the 2008 Paralympic Games and silver and bronze at the 2012 Games in London, she completed her Paralympic tally with silver at Tokyo 2020 after some time away from the sport.

Double silver medallist at Glasgow 2014 with pilot Louise Haston, Aileen paired up with Louise once again for her second Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, finishing 3rd in both the Time Trial and the Sprint (although only gold medals were awarded).

Her final races came in Team Scotland colours at Birmingham 2022 last summer, where she took silver in the Sprint and bronze in the Time Trial with pilot Ellie Stone, a fitting end to a glittering career.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and at some point you’ve got to move on and do other things,” she said.

“I feel like I’ve achieved everything I wanted to in cycling – the opportunity to come back and do a really good time in Tokyo and win a silver medal, I could have finished my career at that point.

“A year out from Tokyo they announced that there was going to be tandem events in Birmingham, but when I got dropped from the British Cycling team again in December 2021, I was seriously considering not doing the Commonwealth Games. I really had to push to get use of a UKSI tandem, so that we were on an even keel with the other home nations, so that played a big part – I didn’t want to do it just to be there, to finish on a low after everything I’ve done.

“I’m pretty pleased and proud of what I’ve achieved. I’m particularly pleased that I’ve carried on to the age of 49 and broken down barriers in terms of age. Riding with Ellie [Stone], she was a really good pilot, so it all came together really well in Birmingham and it was a great way to finish. Birmingham was really special, with great teammates.”

Photo credit: Jeff Holmes

Following his role as General Team Manager at Birmingham 2022, Chris Purdie, has been appointed as Chef de Mission for Team Scotland at the Trinbago 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games.

Head of Competitions at Scottish Student Sport, Chris brings a wealth of experience of major multi-sport Games. In addition to his General Team Manager role, leading on Team Services for Team Scotland at Birmingham 2022, he has been involved in three World University Games. He will lead the British team in January 2023 as Chef de Mission at the World University Winter Games in Lake Placid, USA having served as Deputy Chef de Mission in 2019.

Chris will be responsible for the overall leadership, motivation and unity of the team at Trinbago 2023 and is keen to share his extensive sporting experience with the next generation of Team Scotland athletes.

“It’s a huge honour to lead Team Scotland at the Games in Trinidad and Tobago next year,” he said.

“To have the opportunity to work with young athletes on their performance journey is something I am extremely passionate about and there is something wonderfully unique about representing Scotland at a multi-sport Games. The Commonwealth Games and Youth Games are the only opportunity to do this and, having experienced it once before, I’m eager to provide a truly rich experience for both athletes competing and support staff at next year’s Games.”

Welcoming Chris to the position, Jon Doig OBE, CGS Chief Executive said: “We are delighted to appoint someone of Chris’s standing to lead Team Scotland at next year’s Commonwealth Youth Games. He was a great asset to the team at Birmingham 2022 and his extensive experience of multi-sport events stands him in great stead to deliver a positive Games experience for our young athletes.”

The seventh Commonwealth Youth Games will be held in Trinidad and Tobago from 4-11 August 2023 following a gap of six years since the last edition in the Bahamas in 2017 due to the global pandemic. Team Scotland anticipates sending a team to compete in four sports (Athletics, Cycling, Swimming and Triathlon) with potential additional representation in Beach Volleyball, Netball and Rugby 7s still to be confirmed.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the state of Victoria and Commonwealth Games Australia have announced the addition of Golf, 3×3 Basketball, 3×3 Wheelchair Basketball, Coastal Rowing, Shooting, Shooting Para Sport, BMX Racing, Mountain Bike Cross Country, Track Cycling and Para Cycling to the sports programme for the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The announcement brings the full sports programme to 26 disciplines across 20 sports and marks a Commonwealth Games debut for Coastal Rowing, Golf, and BMX.

Victoria 2026 is also proposing to add in Para disciplines in Golf, Coastal Rowing and the Road Race and will work with the Commonwealth Games Federation and relevant international sporting federations to determine if this is possible.

Shepparton, two hours north of Melbourne, will host a suite of cycling events – staging both men’s and women’s time trials for the road race, as well as the BMX Racing competition, with the full program of event locations to be announced in the coming weeks.

The sport programme for Victoria 2026 now includes 20 sports, the highest number of any Games to date. The full list of sports on the programme is:

Aquatics (Swimming, Para Swimming & Diving)

Athletics & Para Athletics

Badminton

3×3 Basketball, 3×3 Wheelchair Basketball

Boxing

Beach Volleyball

Coastal Rowing

Cricket T20 (Women’s)

Cycling (BMX, Mountain Bike, Road, Track & Para Track)

Golf

Gymnastics (Artistic)

Hockey

Lawn Bowls & Para Lawn Bowls

Netball

Rugby Sevens

Shooting & Shooting Para Sport

Squash

Table Tennis & Para Table Tennis

Triathlon & Para Triathlon

Weightlifting & Para Powerlifting

James Heatly and Grace Reid dove into the history books as the first Commonwealth Games champions in the Mixed Synchronised 3m Springboard event, their gold Team Scotland’s 50th medal of Birmingham 2022.

It was also Aquatics’ thirteenth medal of the Games, the highest medal tally for the sport from any Commonwealth Games, beating the 12 won in Melbourne back in 2006.

Diving first and with the scores close across a number of teams, Heatly and Reid had a long wait to see their position confirmed. Finishing strongly on a forward 3 ½ somersaults pike the pair scored 74.00, giving them a total points tally of 306.00, just under two points clear of Shixin Li and Maddison Keeney of Australia in silver and seven ahead of Malaysia’s bronze medallists Muhammad Puteh and Mur Sabri.

Danny Mabbott and Clara Kerr finished tenth overall in the same event, while Angus Menmuir and Gemma McArthur were also in action in the Mixed Synchronised 10m Platform final, finishing seventh.

Greg Lobban and Rory Stewart won bronze in the men’s squash doubles after an excellent 2-0 victory over Eain Yow Ng and Chee Wern Yuen of Malaysia. The Scots took the first game 11-10 in what was a tight and competitive contest, then they stepped up a notch and won the second game 11-6. Stewart struck the winning shot, a tremendous backhand effort, to claim a first medal since 1998 for squash.

It brought Team Scotland’s final Birmingham 2022 medal tally to 51 with 13 gold, 11 silver and 27 bronze, a record tally for a Games outside Scotland and only two shy of Glasgow 2014’s tally of 53.

Gold for Laura Muir and silver for Eilish McColgan capped a fantastic Birmingham 2022 Games for Athletics, as both became double medallists. With an unexpected bronze for the Women’s 4x400m Relay team, it was a special night inside the Alexander Stadium.

Muir became the first Scot ever to claim 1500m gold at a Commonwealth Games, breaking away with 500m to go, from which point the result was never in doubt. She crossed the line in 4.02:75 to take the title and her second medal of these Games, barely 24 hours after her bronze in the 800m. Jemma Reekie followed her home in fifth.

For McColgan, coming into the 5000m final off the high of 10,000m gold and the news she will carry Scotland’s flag into the Closing Ceremony, dug deep in the closing stages to take silver behind Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet. It was a historic silver too, marking Team Scotland’s 500th medal since the Commonwealth Games began in 1930.

Guy Learmonth raced to sixth place in the Men’s 800m, equalling his result from Glasgow 2014, before the Women’s 4 x 400m Relay team took to the track for what would turn out to be an eventful race. Led off by Zoey Clark, who handed on to Beth Dobbin, Jill Cherry and Nicole Yeargin, the team crossed the line fourth in 3.30:15 as England looked to have taken gold by a single hundredth of a second from Canada. But a post-race review found errors in the first baton-change for the English and they were disqualified, giving gold to Canada, silver to Jamaica and bronze to Scotland.

Team Scotland’s boxers enjoyed an historic day by winning three gold medals for the first time ever at a single Commonwealth Games. With two bronze added to the tally it was also the highest medal count for boxing since Edinburgh 1986.

Sam Hickey set the tone by beating Australia’s Callum Peters by split decision, and became Scotland’s first ever Middleweight winner. Light Heavyweight Sean Lazzerini followed, and also overcame his Welsh opponent, Taylor Bevan, by split decision. Finally, Reese Lynch emulated Josh Taylor by triumphing in the Light Welterweight division by defeating Mauritanian Light Welterweight Richarno Colin by majority decision. Bantamweight Matty McHale and Welterweight Tyler Jolly also got their hands on bronze medals following their respective semi finals on Saturday.

Team Scotland’s cyclists capped their Birmingham 2022 campaign with medals in both the Women’s and Men’s Road Races, to take their Commonwealth Games tally to 11 medals, more than any other Games.

By the time Finn Crockett, a Commonwealth Games debutant, sprinted to a podium place on a boiling hot day in Warwickshire, the team had already equalled the 10 medals they won in Gold Coast, Crockett’s screams of delight on finding out he’d snatched bronze in a photo-finish, captured the team’s mood perfectly.

It all started with the women’s race though, where Neah Evans became the most decorated Scottish female cyclist at a single Games with three medals, silver in the road race adding to the silver and bronze medals she won in the Points Race and Individual Pursuit respectively. In a quiet race it all came down to the sprint, that track rider belying her lack of road race experience to secure a stunning silver.

The final evening session of Diving at Sandwell saw three Scottish athletes in action. First up was Angus Menmuir in the Men’s 10m Platform, where he finished in 11^th place. Later in the evening were Grace Reid and Clara Kerr in the Women’s 3m Springboard. Grace finished in eighth place and Clara, despite recording a lifetime best in the event, came in 11^th place.

In the Badminton semi finals, Kirsty Gilmour faced Michelle Li of Canada, and the pair were evenly matched once again. Despite winning the first game, Kirsty was eventually edged out and Michelle progressed to the final. Kirsty was in action once more when she played Singapore’s Jia Min Yeo for the bronze medal, but she could not repeat her feat at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and lost 2-0. Adam Hall and Julie MacPherson sadly weren’t able to recapture the form shown in their quarter final, and they lost 2-0 to both England and Malaysia in the semi final and bronze medal matches.

Squash

Men’s Doubles – Bronze Medal Match Lobban Greag and Stewart Rory (SCO) 2 – 0 NG Eain Yow / YUEN Chee Wern (MAS) Bronze for Scotland

Diving and Squash take centre stage on the final day of Birmingham 2022 before the curtain closes on what has been Team Scotland’s most successful Games ever outside of Scotland.

10:05 – Team Scotland are well represented in the Mixed Synchronised 3m Springboard final with James Heatly & Grace Reid and Danny Mabbott & Clara Kerr.

11:00 – Greg Lobban and Rory Stewart play Ng and Yuen of Malaysia in the Squash Men’s Doubles bronze medal match, aiming for Team Scotland’s first Squash medal since 1998.

11:19 – Angus Menmuir and Gemma McArthur bring Team Scotland’s Birmingham 2022 Games to a close in the Mixed Synchronised 10m Platform final.

20.00 – Closing Ceremony

Louise Christie made history at Arena Birmingham by picking up silver for her Ribbon apparatus routine – the best ever result for Scotland in Rhythmic Gymnastics, and the first medal in the discipline in almost three decades. With a rousing homage to Scotland, Louise had the Arena cheering her on, and she picked up silver with a brilliant 27.55 points, a 1.65 point increase on her qualifying score. Earlier in the day, Louise had competed in the Clubs final where she finished sixth.

Further medals came on the athletics track as Jake Wightman and Laura Muir took bronze, the latter in dramatic fashion. Jake was first up in the Men’s 1500m, adding a second major championship medal just two weeks after claiming World gold in Oregon. He went to the front with around 200m to run, in similar style to his world final, but was passed in the closing stages by 2019 World champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya and eventual winner Oliver Hoare, the Australian taking the title in a new Games record of 3.30:12. There was a personal best time of 3.32:93 for Neil Gourley in 8th, with Josh Kerr finishing 12th.

Laura Muir was looking for her first Commonwealth Games medal to add to her successes at the Olympics, World and European Championships. She ran a well judged race in a Women’s 800m final that saw eventual winner Mary Moraa of Kenya take it out incredibly fast. In the closing stages Laura found herself locked in a battle for bronze with Jamaican Natoya Goule which came down to a single hundredth of a second as the Scot took a medal with a perfectly timed lunge for the line.

In the Men’s Hammer, Gold Coast bronze medallist Mark Dry donned the Scotland vest at a fourth Games to finish 10th, with Chris Bennett two places further back. In the final race of the evening at the Alexander Stadium, Beth Dobbin took 8th in the Women’s 200m in a time of 23.40.

In the lawn bowls Men’s Singles, Iain McLean won bronze after an excellent 21-11 victory over Malaysia’s Fairul Izwan Abd Muin. McLean had lost his semi-final match against Australia’s Aaron Wilson 21-9, who ended up taking gold, which put the Scot into the bronze medal contest. McLean got off to an exceptional start racing into 18-8 lead in the battle for third spot. The Malaysian began clawing back the score line but McLean stepped up to see his opposition off and win in the 20^th end to claim the medal in his first Commonwealth Games.

Five Scottish boxers in the semi-finals meant five guaranteed medals and the chance to go for gold in the final. Middleweight Sam Hickey kicked-off proceedings against Englishman Lewis Richardson, and caused an upset for the home crowd with a standing count in round one and knockdown in round two. Sean Lazzerini was up next, and his Light Heavyweight opponent from Tanzania was not quite strong enough to take the close split decision from the Glaswegian, while Light Welterweight Reese Lynch outclassed a Canadian Olympian by unanimous decision. Bantamweight Matty McHale and Welterweight Tyler Jolly performed commendably in their respective contests versus Northern Ireland and Wales, but were both edged out in extremely tight split decisions, and they will collect their hard-earned bronze medals tomorrow.

The Badminton team also tasted success on Saturday, with impressive straight game wins for Adam Hall, Julie MacPherson and Kirsty Gilmour against Malaysian and Indian players in the Mixed Doubles and Women’s Singles competitions. The celebrations were jubilant with all now set to play in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Another evening of Diving in Sandwell Aquatics Centre saw Ross Bettie and James Heatly compete in the Men’s 3m Springboard Final, with Cameron Gammage missing out on qualification by less than one point. Although he improved on his qualification score by 37 points, James was unable to hit a top three finish and ended in fourth place with 460.4 points. Ross came in slightly under his qualification score and ended in eleventh place with 365 points.

Greg Lobban and Rory Stewart are through to the squash men’s doubles semi-finals after a 2-0 victory over Zac Alexander and Ryan Cuskelly of Australia. The opening game was a comprehensive 11-2 win for Scotland, followed up by an 11-8 score line to give Scotland the 2-0 victory. Lobban and Stewart face Adrian Waller and Daryl Selby of England for a place in the final.

In the final day of the wrestling competition Scotland’s Christelle Lemofack reached the bronze medal match in the Women’s 50kg but unfortunately lost out to India’s Pooja Gehlot. Other notable results from the wrestling competition came from Ross Connelly who earned a fifth place in the Men’s 65kg category and Cameron Nicol who earned a seventh place finish in the Men’s 97kg category.

Scotland men’s hockey team finished in ninth place after winning their last game of the Games 7-2 against Ghana.