By Sarah Dyce

Twelve years ago, Tollcross International Swimming Centre threw open its doors to a Commonwealth Games for the first time. Now, it does so again, but this time the Games are bigger than ever. 

Glasgow 2026 brings the largest Swimming and Para Swimming programme in Commonwealth Games history to this pool: 56 medal events across 12 sessions, 42 for able-bodied athletes and 14 in Para Swimming. 

Highlighting the July blockbuster, are two events racing at a Commonwealth Games for the very first time: the women’s 1500m freestyle and the men’s 800m freestyle.

It is history live in the making with the women’s 1500m freestyle and the men’s 800m freestyle joining the programme for the first time this year.

Overview

Inside the pool, the contest itself is simple but fast and furious. The Commonwealth’s best swimmers race across four strokes; freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, plus medley events combining all four, at distances from explosive 50m sprints to the gruelling 1500m freestyle. Para Swimmers compete across the same strokes, classified from S7 to S14 for men’s (no S11’s) and SB8, 9, SM10, S13, S14 for women. 

What makes Swimming different from every other sport on the Glasgow 2026 programme is Australia’s rich history – swimming is the only sport in which Australia has won a gold medal at every single Commonwealth Games.

Ones to Watch

Australia

Only two swimmers know exactly what this pool feels like on a Games day. Cam McEvoy and Lakeisha ‘Lucky’ Patterson were both part of the Dolphins squad that raced at Tollcross in 2014, and both return twelve years on, carrying a familiarity with the water no one else in green and gold can match.

International

Canada’s Summer McIntosh will skip Glasgow 2026 for the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships instead. Her absence leaves a gap at the top of women’s distance swimming, one Australia is well placed to fill.

Great Britain won the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay at the Paris 2024 Olympics and again at last year’s World Championships. That winning quartet won’t race together in Glasgow with Matt Richards and James Guy competing for England, Jack McMillan for Northern Ireland, and Duncan Scott for host nation Scotland.

Sport Format

Every heat, semi-final and final runs in the central eight lanes of Tollcross’s 10-lane, 50m pool. Heats fill the morning sessions; semi-finals and finals fill the evenings.

The 50m and 100m events progress through heats, semi-finals and a final: 16 swimmers advance from heats to the semi-finals, and eight advance from there to the final. Events of 200m and longer, and every relay, skip straight from heats to a final contested by the eight fastest qualifiers. The 800m and 1500m freestyle run as timed finals instead: swimmers are seeded into heats by entry time, and the eight fastest overall race in the finals session. Any event with eight or fewer entries becomes a straight final.

Competition Schedule

Swimming and Para Swimming competition runs from Friday 24 July to Tuesday 29 July 2026 at Tollcross International Swimming Centre, across 12 sessions and 56 medal events.

Fast Facts

• Swimming is the only sport in which Australia has won a gold medal at every Commonwealth Games.
• Glasgow 2026 carries the largest Swimming and Para Swimming programme in Commonwealth Games history.
• The women’s 1500m freestyle and men’s 800m freestyle join the Commonwealth Games program for the first time at Glasgow 2026.
• McEvoy and Patterson are the only two Australian swimmers returning to Glasgow for a second Games, having also competed in 2014.

Racing begins Friday 24 July, when Tollcross opens its doors to Commonwealth competition for the first time since the 2014 Games.