Article by Nina Rogerson
As the largest ever multi-sport and cultural event to be held in Scotland marks its ten-year anniversary, we look back at how inspirational the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games was for so many young athletes.
Marc Austin made his debut at the 2014 Games age 20 in the triathlon. Full of youthful confidence, he took the race to the favourites, England’s Brownlee brothers, only for the wheels to come off in the final stages. When I spoke to Marc, I asked him how his experience was as a Scottish athlete competing for Team Scotland in Glasgow.
“Having those seven years leading into it where you knew Glasgow was going to be the host and feeling the build up towards it in the 6 months before, you could really feel the city getting ready for it. Knowing that Glasgow was going to have a Games was a really good goal to have. The six months before when you could feel the excitement building was a really unique experience.
“There was definitely a good feeling in Glasgow after. I was training for a lot of other races, and I got a really good buzz from the Games which carried me through the rest of the year. It made me want to work harder and it kind of reaffirmed why I was training so hard, and it made me want to go to another one straight away.
“I think for a small nation it’s important for athletes to have these experiences, because we don’t really see the best in the world very often, that was my experience growing up. It makes you realise it’s real and it’s not this made-up thing, these athletes aren’t aliens they’re just people.”
Marc returned for a second Games in 2018 and, using all the experience gained in Glasgow, went on to take Scotland’s first medal of the Gold Coast Games with a bronze.
Kelsey Stewart was a young aspiring athlete, watching from the stands at Hampden in 2014 and when 800m medallist Lynsey Sharp passed on her lap of honour, Kelsey managed to grab a selfie with her to remember the experience by. Little did either know that just four years later they would be teammates at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
“It was so inspiring,” said Kelsey. I was absolutely athletics daft, sports daft, I’d been on a countdown to the Commonwealth Games. I’d heard so much about it at school and it was all everyone was talking about. So being in the stands as a young athlete was just amazing.
“It’s so important that we keep hosting big events and make a good job of them as well. Scotland is so passionate for our own athletes, we see it when Scotland plays rugby or football, we really come together.”
Another athlete inspired by Glasgow 2014 was squash player Georgia Adderley. Georgia made her Commonwealth Games debut in 2022 in Birmingham, but she was once a young fan in the stands at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“With squash, the Commonwealth Games is the pinnacle. I went to quite a few of the squash matches and I knew the players playing. As a kid I was a total nerd, I knew everyone’s ranking out of the Scottish players, I was a bit of weirdo with it! But, I remember going to watch and seeing this absolutely unbelievable atmosphere and thinking that was pretty cool.
“When Glasgow 2014 happened, it was run so smoothly, and everything went well so it makes a difference. And as young athletes being able to watch it thinking ‘Yeah I want to be there one day’, it 100% inspires you to work hard if you have that desire.”
It’s definitely a tribute to Glasgow 2014 that the athletes I spoke to were all inspired by the Games in different ways, and highlights the importance of continuing to get behind big sporting events in Scotland, helping to inspire the next generation of Scottish athletes.