Quotes of the Games: Glasgow 2026

Some of the best quotes from the last 10 days at Glasgow 2026.

South Africa's third place in the closing event of the Swimming programme, the Men's 4x100m Medley Relay, earned Chad le Clos (pictured) his 21st Commonwealth medal, making him the most-decorated athlete in the history of the Games: 

"To stand alone in history is unbelievable. Four years ago I needed one more, then Emma (McKeon, Australian swimmer) came past me and I thought, 'Damn, now I need three more'. ... I was nervous. I was shaking on the blocks ... emotionally it's probably the hardest thing.

"Every time I get up for a final, I treat it like a gladiator going to war. I really put my soul into it. Even now I'm drained because it feels like a weight has been lifted.

"I take it very seriously. I'd tell my younger self to stop and smell the roses a bit more. Enjoy the journey. Sometimes I've glided past these 21 medals without really appreciating them. I've never cried over a bronze medal. But it meant so much to me, and I think that's beautiful. And hey, in four years' time, maybe 22. We'll see."  

Niue boxer De Niro Pao, all smiles despite losing the best fight of 24 July's first session against Lesotho’s Pooana Khoahli, explained how he got his unusual first name:

"Robert De Niro is my mum's favourite actor, so she named me after him, and it’s funny because that's my granddad's favourite actor too. He always tells me about (the movie) Raging Bull, I've never seen it though."

Daniel Bos, actor and men's lightweight lifter from Australia, may have appeared in Hollywood movies but he was lost for words after stepping out to compete in the Men's Lightweight Para Powerlifting, presented by Amul: 

"The whole atmosphere here, the crowd, that was crazy. That gave me a massive adrenaline rush. It's really surreal because you sort of have these little moments on stage where I'm like ... 'This is it now. We're here'."

A tearful Adam Ramsay-Peaty appeared to be considering his future after placing third in the Men's 100m Breaststroke final. The England swimmer said:

"For me at 31 years old with a second child on the way, I’ve got decisions to make. It’s so hard to turn down family events because you have to train. It has to be for something. I chase excellence, that was not excellence and there’s a lot going through my head right now.

Namibia's Anne-Leen Thorburn and her sister Jonie Thorburn have been acclimatising to the Glasgow weather ahead of their Commonwealth Games debut in the Women's Gymnastics, presented by Longines. Anne-Leen said: 

"If you see us in our massive raincoats, we give you permission to laugh. They only had one-size-fits-all raincoats and we're quite tiny people, so we're kind of stumbling over them while we're walking. But you have full permission from us to laugh at us, we come from a sunny place."

Gymnast Reuben Ward will never forget the local support at the Glasgow International Arena, after he won Scotland's first-ever All-Around gold medal in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics, presented by Longines:

"Everyone was jumping around me, screaming and celebrating. That was so special. It was a wave of emotions I'd never experienced before. Then standing in front of the crowd with my flag, just living in the moment and loving it. Running around giving people high fives felt so surreal. Everyone wanted to high five me, and I loved it. It was great."

Gymnast Tiana Sumanasekera has switched allegiance from the USA to Sri Lanka, the nation of her parents' birth, and has been relishing her time in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games:

“It was my first Opening Ceremony ever, so I will always remember that. It's something I've tattooed in my brain because it was just so incredible. I've met such incredible people, and it's an experience that I will remember forever.” 

With a population of about 12,000, Nauru is the smallest sovereign member state in the Commonwealth of Nations – and the third smallest country in the world - but Ezekiel Moses is dreaming big after his bronze medal in the Men's 71kg Weightlifting, presented by Amul.

”I’ve been chasing my dream for a long time and I won’t stop here, I’m going to keep going until I get gold. They (people in Nauru) keep waking up in the middle of the night to watch me, see my success and my results. I hope they’re having a party right now.”

Husnah Kukundakwe hopes her silver medal in the Women's 100m Breaststroke SB8 final, Uganda's first time on the podium at Glasgow 2026, leads to more support back home for Para Swimming: 

"I think it's definitely going to bring huge change. I hope it leads to more government funding for Para sport. Swimming isn't a sport that's particularly well supported in Uganda, so taking this medal home shows that our Swimming team and our Para sport team have so much potential to make the country proud. I'm really passionate about creating change, and I'm looking forward to seeing the impact this medal can have."

After winning the Men's 100m Freestyle to continue his country's dominance in the pool, Flynn Southam highlights some other things Australians are good at.

"People say Aussies don't have culture. I beg to differ. I can't wait to be back home, crack open a cold beer, and go for a fish and a surf on the beach. I think that's what it means to represent Australia."

After winning the Men's Vault and Horizontal Bar for Canada, artistic gymnast Felix Dolci will be leaving Glasgow with four gold medals, a silver and a bronze. Reason enough to celebrate...?

"Hell, yeah. A couple of beers, some great food, a little dessert, why not?"

Jasmine Daunakamakama secured Fiji's first-ever Commonwealth Games Women's Boxing medal and was keen to attribute her victory to her culture and the spiritual belief in 'mana', shared across Melanesian and Polynesian communities:

"I believe there's two sides of us. There's an internal war inside all of us where we're constantly fighting between the ego and our true self, which is the spirit, and so, the mana is the will to overcome the fears because the fears is what's not real."

Scotland's world-record holder Josh Kerr cut an incredibly relaxed figure after breezing through his heat in the Men's Mile on Wednesday morning:

“I kind of thrive in the pressure environment. I want as much pressure on me as possible. I'm here to show up and get a gold medal for Scotland, and hopefully we can put more people on the podium than just me.”

Catherine Papani on how she and husband Keith Papani, who is also competing for Niue at Glasgow 2026, took up Bowls:

"(Me) coming off netball and Keith coming off rugby, we decided in 2013 to start playing lawn bowls because it's a bit gentler on the knees. In 2014, we were actually here in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games representing Niue... our girls have been playing a little bit of bowls... their dad's quite competitive, so they've kind of shied away for now."

Chloe Dunbar, moments after claiming silver behind her Canadian teammate Sheriauna Haase in the Women’s 100m T47:

“I used to run with my prosthetic because I was nervous about what people would think about my image, and then I’ve seen Sherry running without her arm and being confident of who she was, so that's now made me become the person that I am today - especially in Athletics.”

Tarona Taafaki has put Tuvalu on the map by winning their first ever Commonwealth Games medal, bronze in the Women's 75kg Boxing. Now most of us just need to get the map out:

"Probably 95% of the audience don’t know where my country is."

After winning gold in the Men's 400m, it's fair to say Nigeria's Samuel Ogazi is setting his career sights high:

“Maybe an Olympic gold, a world championship gold, become the greatest athlete ever. That's what I'm working towards.” 

Given that they come from three islands separated by 3200km of South Atlantic Ocean, it's fair to say the St Helena Men's 4x100m Relay team's preparation was all a bit 'last minute', explained one of them, Tye Leo-Stroud:

"Well, the training experience we had was when we all got together at the Games. Before this, we'd never actually met."