Glasgow is Go!
By Michael Weadock, July 2026
The 2026 Commonwealth Games are underway. They began with an Opening Ceremony at The Hydro Arena and the sport is now starting. By the time you read this, the first medals will have been won already.
I was fortunate enough to have a ticket for the ceremony after working in the interview area before the event interviewing some of the athletes before they paraded. Wandering back to my base, I spotted a few fairly well know journalists and broadcasters posting about how they didn’t know the Games were even on. I would suggest this says more about their lack of awareness and curiosity than it does about the marketing and promotion of Glasgow 2026, because there had been plenty of build-up in major newspapers, by different broadcasters and definitely online and on socials. The Commonwealth Games have happened every four years for the past 96 years, so take a look at yourself if you weren’t aware it was taking place.
My own theory – maybe it felt ‘cool’ to be seen to talk the Games down. Certainly, there have been challenges with this event. But, this could well be the start of a brilliant new era to take the Commonwealth Games into its second hundred years. New broadcasters have come on board and host cities will have more say about the sports programme.
But, what about the BBC? They chose not to broadcast the event on television in the same way as they have before. It’s wrong to suggest they’re ignoring it. It is all over the various BBC social and digital accounts, it’s being heavily covered by radio nationally, regionally and locally and it’s being shown on BBC Alba every night too. In fact, one member of the press team told me they have been inundated with requests and interest from the BBC.
That said, our focus is with talkSPORT. They are broadcasting the Commonwealth Games as an official broadcast partner for the first time in another historic moment for UK commercial radio. We have been working with the team at talkSPORT on the coverage ever since the deal was done.
There will be a special programme every night from 7pm presented by Natalie Sawyer and Greg Rutherford. Nigel Adderley, Alfie Reynolds and Joe Shennan will be commentating across sports including cycling, boxing and swimming and talkSPORT will be hearing from experts including Molly Renshaw, Lewis Richardson and Georgia Holt.
Molly has four Commonwealth Games swimming medals and returns to talkSPORT after working on the award-winning coverage of Paris 2024. Lewis won a medal in Birmingham in 2022 and was the only Team GB boxer to win a medal in Paris. And, Georgia, who won Commonwealth Games silver four years ago at the velodrome, is back with talkSPORT after the Olympics and will be covering a variety of sports on the ground in Glasgow before focusing on the cycling.
Additional reports will come from Georgie Heath and Charlotte Richardson to ensure we are across all ten sports and don’t miss a moment.
Athletics will be the main focus for us. I’ll be commentating alongside 2008 Olympic Champion Christine Ohurougu at Scotstoun and you can hear that every night on the talkSPORT network. John Cushing will be trackside asking the questions after every event continuing a role that he’s worked on recently at the UK Championships and London Diamond League.
And, if you still need to consume even more – you can get a short, sharp daily fix with our podcast The Daily Braw which you can hear first thing every day.
