Commonwealth Games 2026: Jack Carlin excited for Glasgow cycling medal chance

Glasgow and its denizens might care a bit more next summer, when the Commonwealth Games returns to the city.

Cycling will be a key component of the reimagined event and Carlin, who was at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome as a fan in 2014, will be a central figure this time.

As if a home Games – quite literally, given he now lives just up the road in the city’s east end – wasn’t motivation enough, the 28-year-old has a wrong to right.

Carlin has stepped on the podium 19 times in global competition but has never clambered up to the top step.

Sprint silver in Gold Coast, bronze in Birmingham, plus keirin silver three years ago, are the extent of his Commonwealth haul, while a broken ankle 12 weeks out from Paris compromised his chances at the last Olympics.

Now back home after several months in Australia and south east Asia – “let’s call it decompressing” – his focus is on next summer.

“If someone said to 17-year-old Jack, sitting in the stands at Glasgow 2014, ‘listen, you’d be talking about a home Commonwealth Games, 12 years later, with four Olympic medals around your neck’, I would never have believed you,” he says.

“It’s an exciting time to be Scottish and to be Glaswegian, for sure.

“I think, if we can emulate the success and legacy of 2014 – that was what really kick-started my career – and get one or two individuals who are like me in 2014 out of this one, that’s a success.”