Appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 New Year Honours List, Louise Martin, Commonwealth Games Federation President and Honorary Vice President of Commonwealth Games Scotland, received her Damehood on 2 July from Her Majesty The Queen at Holyrood. The honour is conferred in recognition of services to sport in Scotland and across the Commonwealth.

Dame Louise Martin said: “Sport underpins the unique connections and friendships which bring together a third of the world’s population as citizens of the nations and territories of the Commonwealth. I am truly overwhelmed and humbled to be recognised in this way – and can’t imagine what my 16 year old self would have thought about this announcement when I first experienced the Commonwealth Games as a swimmer at the 1962 Games in Perth, Australia.

The successes and impacts of the Games are only made possible by the passion and commitment of our athletes, supporters, volunteers and host city partners. I would like to pay tribute to them – and in particular our partners and participants in Glasgow and Gold Coast – as I graciously thank Her Majesty for this honour”.

Elected President of the Commonwealth Games Federation at the General Assembly in Auckland, New Zealand in September 2015, Louise is the first female to hold this office in the history of the Commonwealth Sports Movement. She has a long and distinguished association with the Games as an Athlete – swimming for Team Scotland at the Perth 1962 Commonwealth Games – and thereafter as Team Manager, Administrator and Honorary Secretary and was the first female elected to the CGF Executive Board.

Louise played a lead role in bringing the Commonwealth Games to Glasgow during the Bid, served as Vice Chair of the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, and was formerly Chair of sportscotland from 2008 to 2015 and Commonwealth Games Scotland from 1999 until 2007. In 2008, she joined the Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport, which she chaired from 2014-2018. In 2003 Louise was awarded the CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to the Commonwealth Games.