With the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games in full swing, we look back to the positive legacy of the last Games and how we’re backing this year’s event.
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Four years ago I wrote an opinion piece as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games reached its climax.
Some things have changed and Glasgow 2026 will be very different, but the allure of the Commonwealth Games and its unique place in the sporting ecosystem endures.
I’ll explain why.
It has been a bumpy four years for the Commonwealth Games with the withdrawal of the state of Victoria (Australia) and a period of uncertainty before Glasgow stepped in to deliver a re-imagined Commonwealth Games.
The Games, starting today, will feature 74 nations and territories competing in 10 sports and six parasports across a range of iconic Glasgow venues.
Notwithstanding the well-documented challenges, the future looks positive: the 2027 Commonwealth Youth Games is looming large (Malta and Gozo), and the venue for the Centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030 was announced late last year. They will take place in Amdavad, India, in what promises to be a ‘full-scale’ Games with some innovative twists.
So, as we look ahead to some brilliant performances and some great memories being made in Glasgow, let’s take a moment to reflect on why the Commonwealth Games is often cited as a formative and special experience.
At the outset I should stress that Team England is an inherently collaborative endeavour that’s prepared and presented by Commonwealth Games England.
They work in concert with the relevant national governing bodies (NGBs) and world class programmes to identify and select athletes (and the team behind the team) across the sports, and to prepare them for success.
But this goes beyond the athletes. The games present an important development opportunity for coaches, team leaders and practitioners, and they motivate and inspire people playing key roles in clubs and facilities across the nation.
Many athletes benefit from World Class Programme funding from UK Sport, and many of the coaches and practitioners will be employed elsewhere across the system in UK Sport-funded NGB programmes.
The Commonwealth Games is a special opportunity for British athletes to represent their home countries.
For our sporting system it's also an important chance to showcase its success and our rich and diverse sporting offer.
Glasgow will feature a portfolio of sports that are played and built in community sports and leisure facilities across the nation, including some that don’t get much airtime but that also deserve to be celebrated.
Our delegation in these games will include Team England Futures – a ‘non-competing’ Team England who will visit Glasgow as part of a carefully coordinated programme delivered by SportsAid, commissioned by Commonwealth Games England and funded by Sport England.
The initiative consists or circa 100 athletes and 30 coaches that’ll receive an immersive games experience designed to support their development.
It'll also help them prepare to thrive in the major games environment when they make their competitive ‘debut’. For many this will come when representing Team GB or ParalympicsGB at LA2028.
They will be England’s living legacy from the Games – and from what we have seen already through the programme, they have a bright future ahead of them.
Firstly, Glasgow is an ‘integrated’ games.
What that means is that para-athletes and athletes live, train and compete alongside one another, in our context, as part of One Team England.
Glasgow will feature a portfolio of sports that are played and built in community sports and leisure facilities across the nation, including some that don’t get much airtime but that also deserve to be celebrated.
Glasgow is also reported to be the largest ever Para-sport programme with a total of 47 medal events being contested.
Team England will field 60 para-athletes (or 24% of the Team England athlete delegation) in bowls, para-powerlifting, track cycling, athletics, swimming and wheelchair basketball 3x3.
All sports are presented as part of an integrated programme of competition and given equal billing, sharing the programme means that spectators get to enjoy the best sport and para-sport as a matter of course.
Team England is relentlessly focused on ensuring parity of support for all athletes, and on giving them the best possible experience and opportunity to fulfill their potential.
This has created an environment that’s genuinely special, as it demonstrates and reminds us of our common values and aspirations, not our differences – physical or otherwise.
In terms of women’s sport, the number of medals available is strikingly similar and Team England will have more women competing than men.
Amongst them is netball, which is a particularly high-profile event and the Commonwealth Games rivals the Netball World Cup for perceived importance and profile.
At the preparation camp and ‘kitting out’ – where everyone goes to collect their kit, complete their preparations and receive their final training on aspects such as anti-doping and media – there is a map of England and athletes are invited to take a photo and place themselves on the map.
This is a visual representation of where athletes originate from and how they represent the full spread geographically of the nation.
Watching the map get populated as athletes come through the prep camp is fascinating.
Besides, the team has an age spread between 14 and 73 years of age and yet we come together as one Team England of 251 athletes and para-athletes, all with their unique stories and backgrounds – a truly inspiring and exciting prospect.
All the athletes started their journeys in grassroots sport, where volunteer coaches and officials provided fun and impactful opportunities for them to explore and develop their potential.
I can’t stress enough just how much that matters and how amazing a journey can be started with that important first step, plus all those accessible and inclusive first experiences.
Now the baton of supporting the athletes passes to the team behind them.
The commitment and passion from the team at Commonwealth Games England, plus the professionalism and dedication of the sport team leaders is genuinely inspiring – these roles are hard work and I hope very rewarding too.
However, these people won’t stand at the summit of the mountain.
Instead, they are the sherpas staying quietly in the background enabling athletes to focus on their experience, process and performance. I applaud every one of them.
If you want to watch the games and share some of the magic there are different TV options, including daily highlights on Channel 5 and live coverage throughout on TNT, and also on BBC Radio 5 Live and talkSPORT.
If you love sports, you can’t miss it. For me, it’s the sports event of the summer!
Coaching children and young people often takes place on the move in parks, halls, pitches or sports halls.
Those involved know these sessions can happen after work, before school, during busy evenings or as part of already-packed weekends. But regardless of when or where, they often happen with very little time to stop, reflect and ask, “what part of this process could we adapt so it feels more child-first?”
The only certain thing is that coaches need practical, quick-to-access and trusted support.
The question Play Their Way often gets asked is: "how can child-first coaching reach coaches in ways that work in the real world?"
Now, thanks to our growing community, ideas are being shared between peers but we wanted to make this more accessible for all coaches. This is one of the reasons we developed the new Play Their Way app.
The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.
In any case, the aim of the Play Their Way resources is to ensure that child-first coaching can be applied in a practical context, and the app is a step towards delivering this objective directly into the pockets of coaches.
Every coach needs support and at the centre of the app is Joy – our new AI coaching assistant.
Coaches can ask Joy questions about child-first coaching and get quick answers based exclusively on trusted Play Their Way and Children’s Coaching Collaborative partner content.
This ensures that when coaches get support from the app it is always rooted in the Play Their Way philosophy, rather than generic advice.
The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.
The app is there for you whether you need ideas specific to a particular age group, an activity or the time you have for any given session. Just tap in a few details and Joy will share child-first ideas you can use straight away.
Joy can also answer different questions, such as:
Alongside Joy, the app brings together practical articles, coach stories, learning content and updates from across Play Their Way.
Coaches can also track their progress and unlock badges as they go with the new gamification element.
We think this is a great tool that will help coaches and will benefit kids too, so if you work with trainers we encourage you to take a look, download it and try it.
And if you think it could help the people you support, share it with them because in doing so you can help make child-first coaching more available without having to start from scratch.
Pride Month provides an opportunity to celebrate visibility and community around the world.
But this time it is also an opportunity to reflect on what inclusion in sport and physical activity really means for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans/Non-Binary and other Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ+) people.
Conversations about inclusion often focus on participation.
We want to know how many people are taking part, how often they are active or whether activity levels are increasing, but when it comes to answering these questions for LGBTQ+ communities, the picture is more nuanced than many might think.
The latest Active Lives Adult Survey (November 2024–25) shows that some members of the LGBTQ+ communities are now more active than their heterosexual or cisgender peers.
However, one in three trans adults (33%), and just under one in three (30%) respondents who described their sexual orientation as ‘other’, are active for less than 30 minutes per week.
Additionally, LGBTQ+ people are also more likely to experience discrimination in sport and physical activity settings, and also less likely to report feelings of belonging in our local communities.
These findings challenge the assumption that LGBTQ+ inclusion in sport and physical activity has been achieved simply because certain activity levels look favourable.
The real work on LGBTQ+ inclusion is in ensuring that members of the communities can participate in environments where we feel safe, welcome and able to be ourselves.
LGBTQ+ people are also more likely to experience discrimination in sport and physical activity settings, and also less likely to report feelings of belonging in our local communities.
Earlier this week, we welcomed Lou Englefield from Pride Sports to lead a webinar for colleagues in the sector on LGBTQ+ inclusion as part of our Accessible and Inclusive Futures series, delivered in partnership with Inclusive Employers.
The session outlined the challenges LGBTQ+ people face across the sporting landscape and explored what organisations and individuals can do to improve cultures and environments, rather than just participation figures.
Lou talked us through Pride Sport’s research findings, which show that whilst many LGBTQ+ adults are active, we tend to favour solo pursuits such as walking, running, swimming or going to the gym, over team-based activities.
Additionally, those of us who do take part in traditional or team sports don’t always feel comfortable sharing our gender identity or sexual orientation with the teammates around us.
The figures were particularly stark for bisexual men and women, with only 22% and 26% respectively, reporting that either everyone, or most people, are aware of their sexual orientation in the sport they play.
The findings from Pride Sports matter because they highlight the hidden effort that many LGBTQ+ people put into deciding whether it is safe to be open about who they are.
Research on Minority Stress Theory shows that LGBTQ+ people experience stress from discrimination itself, but also from anticipating negative reactions and feeling the need to hide parts of their identity.
Different studies show that concealing your sexual orientation or gender identity can negatively impact wellbeing, whereas feeling able to be yourself is linked to better mental health outcomes and a stronger sense of belonging.
So, whilst many LGBTQ+ people might be achieving positive activity levels, they may not be experiencing all the social connectivity and wellbeing benefits that we know sport can provide.
Creating more inclusive environments does not necessarily require large-scale programmes or significant investment.
It often begins with listening.
Organisations can start by building authentic relationships with LGBTQ+ communities and asking people directly about their experiences, needs and aspirations.
In our webinar, Lou suggested that organisations could start by reviewing the policies and processes that shape participants' experiences, including:
As well as policies, people matter too and it is our coaches, volunteers, instructors, officials and front-line staff who often have the most significant influence on whether individual participants feel welcome.
Inclusive practice isn’t about having all the answers.
It’s about allyship and respect, as well as avoiding assumptions about identity, relationships or pronouns, using inclusive language and being open to learning from participants' experiences.
A welcoming coach or teammate can be what turns participation into belonging.
Across the UK and Europe, LGBTQ+ sports clubs and events continue to create spaces where inclusion is built in, not bolted on.
Next year, Pride Sports will host the EuroGames in Cardiff, welcoming thousands of LGBTQ+ athletes to celebrate participation, diversity and belonging through sport.
Events like these remind us that the goal isn't simply to increase participation, but to create environments where everyone feels safe, respected and that they belong.
Because the true measure of inclusion is not just looking at who takes part – it's who feels they belong.
A new ‘Coach in Your Pocket’ tool offers instant access to support and advice informed by child-first coaching principles.
Children and young people
Coaching
For many people sport is associated with teamwork, friendship and confidence, but for lots of young LGBT+ individuals the experience of sport can be far less positive.
When I think back to my own experiences of school PE lessons, I remember often being one of the last people chosen for team sports.
Whilst many young people enjoy sport from an early age, others can come away feeling excluded, judged or simply that sport is not for people 'like them'.
Research consistently shows that LGBT+ people participate in sport at lower rates than their non-LGBT+ peers and experiences of bullying, concerns about fitting in, fear of judgement and a lack of visible role models can all contribute to young people not engaging in physical activity.
This matters because sport and physical activity offer far more than physical health benefits – they provide opportunities to build friendships, develop confidence, improve mental wellbeing and create a sense of belonging.
At Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons' Trust, we believe that every young person deserves the opportunity to experience those benefits and that is why physical activity has become one of our key strategic priorities.
Rather than expecting young LGBT+ people to adapt to environments where they may not feel welcome, we co-create spaces specifically designed to help them feel safe, supported and encouraged to participate.
Throughout the year, our members take part in a wide variety of low-level activities, such as ice skating, bowling, walking or cycling, to encourage them to be more physically active.
But what makes these experiences truly successful is not simply the activity itself, but the environment in which they take place.
Young people are surrounded by their LGBT+ peers, who share their experiences and are also supported by trained staff and volunteers too.
This environment is key because they get to see LGBT+ adults acting as role models and participating alongside them and, most importantly, they feel free to focus on enjoying the activity rather than worrying about whether they belong.
Rather than expecting young LGBT+ people to adapt to environments where they may not feel welcome, we co-create spaces specifically designed to help them feel safe, supported and encouraged to participate.
Mosaic Summer Camp can be a prime example of where it is taken to another level.
Each year, young LGBT+ individuals aged 12-17 spend a week together taking part in outdoor adventure activities, team challenges and sports that many have never had the confidence to try before.
Whether it is kayaking across a lake, abseiling off a cliff or building a raft, young individuals are encouraged to step outside their comfort zones in an environment built on acceptance and encouragement.
The results can be transformative and young people who arrive feeling anxious often leave having discovered new strengths, new friendships and a newfound confidence in their ability to participate in physical activity.
What’s more, for many our summer camp becomes the first place where they experience sport without fear of judgment.
For our young adults, those aged 18–25, Pride Youth Games provides a similar opportunity.
The event brings together LGBT+ youth organisations from across the UK to take part in friendly sporting activities to have fun and to build community connections.
The emphasis is not on elite performance but on participation, on enjoyment and on the creation of positive experiences that’ll encourage lifelong engagement with physical activity.
These programmes demonstrate an important lesson for the wider sports sector: when young LGBT+ individuals are provided with welcoming, inclusive and supportive environments, participation follows.
The challenge is not fixing a lack of interest in sport, but ensuring that young people can access sport in spaces where they feel they belong and where they don’t have to worry about being LGBT+.
At Mosaic, we have seen firsthand how transformative those opportunities can be.
Sport has the power to improve health, strengthen communities and build confidence, so by creating environments where young LGBT+ individuals feel safe to participate, we can ensure that more young people experience those benefits and discover that sport really can be for them.
Growing up as the only deaf person in my family, sport became my escape from the loneliness and isolation I often felt at home and at school, because constantly second-guessing conversations and struggling to keep up takes a toll.
But sport gave me freedom and a way to let go of all that frustration.
It all started with swimming. In the water I found my own bubble of silence. No worrying about misheard words or asking people to repeat themselves – just me, the lane and a sense of independence.
That feeling is something every child should have, but for many deaf children the chance to experience it simply isn’t there.
Deafness is often called 'the forgotten disability' and it’s easy to see why.
According to data by the National Deaf Children’s Society there are more than 18 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, including 54,000 children, yet the challenges they face go far beyond communication.
Social isolation is common and that often leads to mental health struggles and inactivity.
The results of Sport England’s Active Lives Surveys painted a stark picture:
These numbers support why tackling inequalities isn’t just a nice idea – it’s essential – and it’s exactly what Sport England’s strategy is all about.
There are more than 18 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK, including 54,000 children, yet the challenges they face go far beyond communication.
In 2025, we launched Destination Deaflympics, a programme for 8-16-year-olds inspired by the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics.
For us it’s all about giving young people the chance to try fun, inclusive activities and closing the gap between deaf children and their hearing peers.
So far we’ve reached 3,500 deaf and hard of hearing children across 175 settings and, along the way, we’ve learned a lot about the barriers they face, like the lack of accessible community provision or coaches who don't know how to deliver inclusive sessions.
That’s why we’re working with partners like the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People to make sure deaf children get their recommended 60 minutes of activity every day.
This work has seen great success in the education sector with teachers sharing that by taking part in Destination Deaflympics, they are also seeing benefits in the classroom with students being more focused and ready to learn.
The Deaflympics celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024 and the Tokyo Games was an event like no other.
The GB team brought home 12 medals, finishing 12th out of 80 nations, but its impact went way beyond the results.
These athletes are key role models who showed what’s possible and inspired the next generation of Deaf sport men and women.
Before the Games, one of our swimmers spent a day with deaf schoolchildren in Greater Manchester sparking excitement and ambition that will last a lifetime.
Everything we’re doing supports Sport England's long-term strategy, Uniting the Movement. We're talking about things like:
Sport should be for everyone and that’s why, by breaking down barriers and creating opportunities, we’re not just changing lives – we’re helping deliver Sport England’s vision of a fair, inclusive and active nation.
It’s not very often that we stop and really reflect on how far we’ve come, but this Mental Health Awareness Week I'm inviting you to celebrate some recent and significant milestones in embedding mental health in sport and physical activity.
Over the last decade, the sector has been on an incredible journey to take positive action on mental health.
This kick-started with the launch of the Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation in 2015 and since then we’ve seen some key milestones, such as:
It’s not very often that we stop and really reflect on how far we’ve come, but this week I’m inviting you to celebrate some recent and significant milestones in embedding mental health in sport and physical activity.
“So, Ben, are those the significant milestones you’re referring to?” I hear you ask, and of course they’re significant! But there’s still more to do to support people’s mental health through sport, physical activity and movement.
Back in 2017, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson's Duty of Care report contained clear recommendations including:
Recently we’ve done just that and CIMSPA’s Coach and Swimming Teacher professional standards now include a section on mental health awareness with knowledge points on:
Plus did you know the sport and physical activity sector now has a dedicated professional standard for working with people with mental health conditions?
This means NGBs and training providers can benchmark qualifications and training when delivering programmes specifically aimed at people with mental health problems.
This is hugely significant because, believe it or not, the sport and physical activity sector is leading the way!
And I'm not being biased as, out the 322 organisations surveyed in CIMSPA’s 2025 Workforce Development Tool, nearly half (48%) identified mental health awareness as a specialised skill they will need in the next 12–24 months.
Oh, and we haven’t stopped there!
We’ve also created licensed mental health content for NGBs and for the Sport England system partners to use in their training and qualifications for free!
Nowadays I’m working with NGBs to embed this content into their coach education pathways, with British Rowing leading the way.
Their head of qualifications and training development, Rachel Hooper, mentioned that our licensed content has been invaluable in ensuring they use modern and credible information to support coaches.
“Completed it, mate?” Well, not quite because there’s still a long way to go to truly embed mental health across sport and physical activity.
Too many people are battling with their mental health, often in silence, but we know physical activity can be a powerful tool for both preventing and managing mental health problems.
So, this Mental Health Awareness Week I’m inviting you to take action and to be part of the journey, because great mental health care isn’t just clinical; it’s human.
It’s the sports coach who asks, “is everything ok?” when you miss a session or the fitness instructor who checks how they can support you before your first exercise class, but mental wellbeing is also about building a supportive and friendly environment where people can move and thrive.
So if you’re unsure where to start, that's what we’re here for! Let’s talk, let’s start the conversation and let’s fight for mental health for the next 10 years and beyond.
You can reach us by email, online or follow us on LinkedIn. We look forward to hearing from you.
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