Olympians & Olympic medallists set to compete for Team Canada at 2026 Commonwealth Games
They’re known as “The Friendly Games”.
They bring together athletes from 74 nations and territories, competing in both able-bodied and para sports in a fully integrated program.
They are the Commonwealth Games.
First held in 1930, they’ve seen all sorts of historic achievements—perhaps most memorably, the “Miracle Mile” in 1954 in Vancouver when Roger Bannister and John Landy both broke the four-minute mark in the mile.
This year, the Commonwealth Games will take place July 23 to August 2 in Glasgow, Scotland. Leading Team Canada’s contingent of 149 athletes will be Olympic gold medallist in wrestling, Erica Wiebe, proudly serving as the Chef de Mission.
Now working as Manager of Athlete Relations, DEI, and Safe Sport at the Canadian Olympic Committee, Wiebe competed and won gold at two editions of the Commonwealth Games: 2014, when they were also held in Glasgow, and 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia.
“To have the opportunity to go back in a Chef de Mission role to kind of where it all began for me felt like a really perfect, full circle moment as to where I am in my career,” Wiebe shared in the week before her departure for Scotland.
In the two years leading up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Wiebe had some highlight moments on the wrestling mat, but not yet the big breakthrough she sought.
“I beat all the best people in the world, but I could never quite do it when it mattered.”
And then she went to Glasgow.
“A very big multi-sport Games, a huge stadium, and I made my first big final under the lights with 10,000 fans in the stadium. I remember Scott Russell from CBC was covering the event and I was like ‘whoa, this is really big’ and I found a way to win in that moment.
“So that was the final piece where I was like ‘wow, I also can do it when it matters most’ and that gave me a lot of confidence in my own abilities and my own power,” she recalled of how her Commonwealth Games victory helped set her up for Olympic success two years later at Rio 2016.
“For me, personally, it definitely was a key development pathway.”
Glasgow 2026 will also be an important stop for many Canadian athletes on the road to the next Olympic Games at Los Angeles 2028. It’s a chance to compete in a slightly less stressful but still demanding environment of a multi-sport Games.
In a year without the biennial World Athletics Championships, the Commonwealth Games is the marquee event this summer for the track and field team—one that includes Olympic medallists Camryn Rogers, Andre De Grasse, Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake, Ethan Katzberg, Evan Dunfee, Damian Warner, and Mohammed Ahmed, as well as world indoor champions Sarah Mitton and Christopher Morales Williams.
The swimming team is led by Olympic and World Aquatics Championships medallists Kylie Masse and Josh Liendo.
Four-time Olympian Ellie Black is set for her third Commonwealth Games. She is joined on the women’s artistic gymnastics team by reigning world silver medallist on vault, Lia-Monica Fontaine. The men’s team includes Olympians Félix Dolci, René Cournoyer, and William Émard.
Two-time Olympic medallist Maude Charron headlines the weightlifting team, while the track cycling team features Olympians Maggie Coles-Lyster, Sarah Orban, James Hedgcock, and Tyler Rorke.
In Wiebe’s words: “This team is amazing.”
And she’s ready to help them however she can.
“I want to be authentically myself and so I always lead with joy, with positivity, with transparency. What you’ll expect from me as a Chef is someone who is the biggest fan in the stands, cheering, but also there behind the scenes to support each athlete in their journeys,” said Wiebe.
Canada will also have teams in 3×3 wheelchair basketball, para athletics, bowls and para bowls, boxing, judo, and para swimming.
“The athletes are going to be very much in for a treat to compete in a city that embraces sports and in a community that really champions it,” said Wiebe.
Glasgow 2026 will be smaller than recent Commonwealth Games, a consequence of the city only taking on the hosting responsibilities in 2024 after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew the year before due to rising costs.
While the operation will be lean, which is most noticeable in the reduced sports schedule, Wiebe says the Games are going to be held in “world-class venues with an expert sport operations staff that have a lot of experience in running high performance sport.”
For the first time ever, Commonwealth Sport has opened an opportunity for teams to have a charitable partner. Commonwealth Sport Canada has partnered with Right to Play, the global organization that works to protect, educate, and empower children—including many in Indigenous communities across Canada—through the power of play to help them rise above adversity. Right to Play’s logo will appear on Canada’s non-competition uniforms, aiming to highlight the role that sport plays in building more inclusive, equitable, and resilient communities.
For Wiebe, who has been a Right to Play ambassador for more than 15 years, “that’s something that I think is really amazing as we think about sport as a tool for social transformation.”
Fans can catch Team Canada in action on CBC TV, CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV (in French) with live daily broadcast and streaming coverage, starting with the Opening Ceremony on July 23. You can also keep up with them on social media @cwthsportcan.
