Team Gibraltar ready to compete in Glasgow 2026

Team Gibraltar will arrive in Glasgow this week ahead of the Commonwealth Games, which get underway this Thursday.
A 16-strong team will represent Gibraltar in athletics, swimming, judo, weightlifting and boxing, among the smallest number of sports in which Gibraltar has competed at recent editions of the Games.
A regular at the Games since first competing at the 1958 Cardiff British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Gibraltar has participated in every edition since, although it has yet to win a medal.
The team will feature several new faces making their Commonwealth Games debut, most notably recent Gibraltar athletics recruit Ella Rush. A former Great Britain Under-21 athlete, Rush transferred her allegiance to Gibraltar, becoming eligible to represent the Rock through her mother’s Gibraltarian ties.
Ella is one of Gibraltar’s strongest medal prospects, with her recent rankings placing her among the top Under-21 athletes in her event. She also finished among the top eight at the World Under-20 Championships.
In swimming, Asia Kent, who has been training alongside some of Great Britain’s brightest young talents, will also be hoping to make an impression.
The Gibraltar team consists of:
Athletics: Ella Rush, Julian Turnock, Pau Funes Fa and Finley Cant
Boxing: Ewan Gracia, Ryan Trico and Julian Fa
Judo: Adam Stevens and Bradley Morris
Swimming: Asia Kent, Jordan Gonzalez, Jim Sanderson, Katie Green, Katie Maddocks, Christian Chipolina and Adam Burns
Despite never reaching the podium, Gibraltar has produced several notable performances over the years, including John Chappory’s achievement in reaching the 800m semi-finals at the 1986 Games, one of Gibraltar’s strongest athletics performances to date.
Gibraltar also saw Heloise Mañasco finish eighth in the women’s 10m air rifle event at the 2006 Games, one of Gibraltar’s highest-ever placings in an individual event.
A reduced programme for the 2026 Games, however, sees Gibraltar sending one of its smallest teams in recent editions and competing in a limited number of sports, with triathlon, shooting and cycling all absent.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games were originally awarded to the Australian state of Victoria rather than a single city. It was the first time the Games had been planned as a multi-city regional event.
The original host plan included:
Melbourne – Opening Ceremony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)
Geelong – Closing Ceremony at Kardinia Park
Ballarat – Major competition hub
Bendigo – Major competition hub
Latrobe Valley (Traralgon, Morwell and surrounding areas) – Major competition hub
However, in July 2023, the Victorian Government withdrew from hosting after projected costs escalated dramatically, from an initial estimate of around A$2.6 billion to more than A$6 billion. The government concluded the event was no longer financially viable.
Following Victoria’s withdrawal, the Commonwealth Games faced an uncertain future.
After exploring alternative hosts, Glasgow agreed to stage a scaled-down version of the Games.
Glasgow 2026 features fewer sports, fewer venues and a significantly reduced budget, making use of many of the facilities from the successful 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The original Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games were planned as a full-scale event featuring 20 sports, broadly following the model used at Birmingham 2022. After Victoria withdrew, the replacement Glasgow 2026 Games were redesigned with just 10 sports, making them the smallest Commonwealth Games programme since 1994.
This has had a significant impact on many of the smaller nations, including Gibraltar, with key sports such as shooting, where Gibraltar has traditionally performed well, no longer included.
At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Gibraltar sent a team of 23 athletes (17 men and six women) competing across seven sports.
These were athletics (2), cycling (road and mountain bike) (9), rhythmic gymnastics (2), squash (1), swimming (5), triathlon (3) and weightlifting (1). Three of those sports have been dropped from the Glasgow 2026 programme.
With Gibraltar excluded from the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games remain the only major multi-sport event in which it can realistically compete as Team Gibraltar.
For many of the sports missing from this edition, the reduced programme is a major setback to their development, creating an eight-year gap between Commonwealth Games appearances. While World Championships continue to provide international competition within their respective sports, the opportunity to represent Gibraltar at a major multi-sport event and compete alongside athletes from across the Commonwealth has been lost.
The Commonwealth Games remain one of the most significant sporting events in Gibraltar’s calendar, although this year’s scaled-down edition has inevitably lost some of its momentum.
Nevertheless, when Jordan Gonzalez leads Team Gibraltar into the Opening Ceremony as flag bearer, accompanied by Holly O’Shea as Gibraltar’s baton bearer, the Gibraltar flag will once again fly alongside those of 73 other nations competing in this year’s Commonwealth Games.
It will be a ceremony broadcast live across the globe, with all eyes in Gibraltar focused on its athletes and the hope that they can finally deliver the Rock’s first-ever Commonwealth Games medal.