Glasgow 2026 preview: Para swimming champions set for top‑stakes showdown

The Para Swimming motion on the 2026 Commonwealth Games kicks off on Friday (24 July) in Glasgow, Great Britain, that includes a deeper programme and no scarcity of confirmed worldwide high quality. 

Fourteen titles will likely be determined throughout six days on the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, the place established champions will meet athletes chasing historic firsts for his or her international locations. With two extra medal occasions in comparison with Birmingham 2022, Glasgow 2026 will stage the biggest Para swimming programme so far on the Commonwealth Games.

Glasgow 2026’s Para swimming schedule and outcomes will be discovered here and all occasions will likely be livestreamed to audiences throughout 74 territories and past. More info on the place to observe will be checked here.

Para swimming has been a part of the Commonwealth Games since Manchester 2002. This 12 months, seven occasions for ladies and 7 for males function inside the wider swimming schedule, masking bodily, imaginative and prescient and mental impairment classifications.

Tollcross offers acquainted environment for a lot of main names. The venue staged swimming at Glasgow 2014 and hosted the World Para Swimming Championships one 12 months later. Its 50m pool will now welcome a discipline led by Paralympic and world medallists from England, Scotland, Australia, Canada and past.

England arrives with appreciable depth. Alice Tai returns as a two-time Commonwealth champion, having gained the 100m backstroke at each Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022. Her expertise is matched by the type of Poppy Maskill and William Ellard, two of the excellent S14 swimmers of the present cycle.

Maskill gained three gold medals on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games earlier than claiming three particular person world titles in Singapore in 2025. Ellard additionally left Paris as a Paralympic champion and set a world file on his approach to the boys’s 200m freestyle S14 world title in Singapore.

Their fundamental alternative in Glasgow comes on Saturday 25 July, when each S14 200m freestyle occasions are contested. England may name upon world and Paralympic medallists together with Louise Fiddes, Rebecca Redfern and Brock Whiston throughout the programme.

Scotland’s seven athlete staff brings its personal mix of medal expertise and residential curiosity. Toni Shaw, Stephen Clegg and Ollie Carter return after competing at Birmingham 2022, whereas Faye Rogers and Astrid Carroll will make their Commonwealth Games debuts.

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Think you’ve got received the proper swimming begin? So did our swimmers and para swimmers… 😅

Who’s getting a ten/10? 👀👇#TeamScotland #Glasgow2026 #Swimming #ParaSwimming #CommonwealthGames ##BringItHame pic.twitter.com/Qzw8haITyO

— Team Scotland (@Team_Scotland) July 17, 2026

Stephen Clegg arrives as a double Paris 2024 Paralympic champion and world file holder within the 100m backstroke S12. Rogers, in the meantime, gained Paralympic gold within the 100m butterfly S10 in Paris and have become world champion within the 200m particular person medley SM10 in Singapore. Racing at Tollcross provides each the prospect to compete for Scotland in entrance of a house crowd.

Australia stays a serious a part of the medal equation. Their 18 athlete Para swimming squad consists of four-time Commonwealth Games competitor Lakeisha Patterson, Birmingham 2022 champions Tim Hodge and Col Pearse, and a bunch of seven debutants.

Patterson returns to the pool the place she made her senior worldwide debut as a 15-year-old at Glasgow 2014. Hodge is entered within the males’s 100m backstroke S9 and 100m breaststroke SB9, whereas Pearse faces fellow Australian Alex Saffy within the males’s 100m butterfly S10. Jack Ireland and Maddie McTernan add additional Australian energy to the S14 freestyle races.

Canada have chosen seven Para swimmers, together with Nicolas Guy Turbide, Alec Elliot and rising expertise Reid Maxwell. Their presence provides additional depth to occasions by which no nation can depend on repute alone, significantly with solely eight qualification locations obtainable in every medal occasion.

There can also be a possible landmark consequence for Uganda. Team captain Husnah Kukundakwe will compete alongside Condoleeza Nakazibwe because the nation pursues its first Commonwealth Games Para swimming medal. Kukundakwe, an SB8 swimmer and two-time Paralympian, has developed into considered one of Africa’s main Para swimming rivals whereas advocating for higher alternatives for athletes with disabilities.

The opening day options 4 Para swimming occasions: the ladies’s and males’s 100m freestyle S13, girls’s 200m particular person medley SM10 and males’s 100m butterfly S10. The S14 200m freestyle races observe on Saturday.

Sunday’s programme turns to the ladies’s and males’s 100m backstroke S9, earlier than the ladies’s 100m breaststroke SB8 and males’s 100m breaststroke SB9 take centre stage on Monday. The girls’s and males’s 50m freestyle S13 will likely be contested on Tuesday, with the ladies’s 100m freestyle S9 and males’s 50m freestyle S7 closing the Para swimming programme on Wednesday 29 July.

Paralympic champion, Timothy Hodge, has been named Australia’s Baton Bearer for the @Glasgow_2026 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony, main the Australian Team alongside Flag Bearer Nina Kennedy OAM 💚💛

Read the complete story: https://t.co/X9Sk0ymY7s@CommGamesAUS pic.twitter.com/wNvdIzSwKq

— AUS Paralympic Team (@AUSParalympics) July 23, 2026

Complete Para swimming programme at Glasgow 2026:

Friday, 24 July

Women’s 100m Freestyle S13

Men’s 100m Freestyle S13

Women’s 200m Individual Medley SM10

Men’s 100m Butterfly S10

Saturday, 25

Women’s 200m Freestyle S14

Men’s 200m Freestyle S14

Sunday, 26

Women’s 100m Backstroke S9

Men’s 100m Backstroke S9

Monday, 27

Women’s 100m Breaststroke SB8

Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB9

Tuesday, 28

Women’s 50m Freestyle S13

Men’s 50m Freestyle S13

Wednesday, 29

Women’s 100m Freestyle S9

Men’s 50m Freestyle S7