Kelly Brazier sprinted 90 metres to score the winning try for the New Zealand women's sevens side at the Gold Coast Games. Photo: Photosport
A scaled-back Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will feature just 10 events, with several prominent sports being culled. Rugby sevens and hockey are among the sports to miss out, with both accounting for 15 medals in the past for New Zealand.
Games organisers confirmed on Tuesday the event list for the 2026 event, which will be held in Scotland from 23 July 23 to 2 August.
The slimmed-down program has also axed diving, badminton, beach volleyball, cricket, road cycling and mountain biking, rhythmic gymnastics, squash, table tennis and para table tennis, triathlon and para triathlon, and wrestling.
In 2026, Glasgow will host athletics and para athletics, swimming and para swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para track cycling, netball, weightlifting and para powerlifting, boxing, judo, lawn bowls and para bowls, 3x3 basketball and 3x3 wheelchair basketball.
Men's rugby sevens was first played in 1998 and has been an exceptionally successful event with the All Blacks Sevens winning five gold medals. The Black Ferns Sevens have won a gold and bronze in the two Games that the women's event has been staged.
The Commonwealth Games gold medal winning All Black Sevens. Photo: Photosport
Field hockey has been on every program since Kuala Lumpur in 1998, while diving had been at every edition dating back to the 1930 Empire Games, and road cycling had featured since 1938.
Wrestling featured at the 1911 Festival of Empire and all but three - 1990, 1998 and 2006 - Commonwealth Games since then.
Glasgow, which hosted the Games in 2014, stepped in late after the Victorian government withdrew its pledge to host the event in Melbourne.
Organisers have said the want for a financially sustainable event, developed in a short timeframe, was a catalyst for the trimmed-down program.
"When we started pulling this concept together just under a year ago, our focus was on creating a Games that was different," Commonwealth Games Scotland chief executive Jon Doig said.
"Glasgow 2026 will have all the drama, passion and joy that we know the Commonwealth Games delivers, even if it is to be lighter and leaner than some previous editions."
The future of the Commonwealth Games was thrown into disarray in July of 2023 when then-premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews axed the event, citing financial constraints.
Glasgow stepped in to host the Games and earmarked early on its ambition to have a trimmed-down version of the event.
- ABC
