By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2026 Commonwealth Games
July 24 – 29, 2026 (pool swimming) Glasgow, Scotland Tollcross International Swimming Centre LCM (50m) Meet Central Entries Preview Index How to Watch Live Results Live Recaps Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6Swimmer Of The Meet: Pieter Coetze, South Africa
Coetze went unbeaten at this meet in his individual events, and set a staggering eight Commonwealth Games records. He swept the backstroke events, upgrading from a gold and two silvers in 2022, and added a pair of bronze medals on relays for South Africa.
He posted three of the fastest swims in history in the 100 back, including the #2 (51.71) and #3 (51.77) performances of all time. That made him the first man to reach five sub-52 swims, one more than Thomas Ceccon and Ryan Murphy.
Coetze is the clear choice for this award because there never really felt as though there was any jeopardy that he would not be the clear alpha every time he entered the water. The winner of the backstroke titles did not look in doubt after his first heats swim, and he only got better from there.
Four swims between 52.20 and 51.71 in the 100 back in just over 24 hours is phenomenal. He broke the Commonwealth Games record in that event by a stunning 1.41 seconds. Coetze looked on a different plane to everyone else in backstroke this week, and three individual gold medals and eight Commonwealth Games records are numbers no one else can touch.
Honorable Mentions:
Sam Short (Australia) – Sam Short was the only other man to match Coetze’s achievement of three individual gold medals, sweeping the distance free events, but didn’t quite have the same domination that the South African did. He won the 400 free by four seconds and the 800 free by nearly seven, but was slower than he had been at the Australian Trials earlier this year and set just one new Commonwealth Games record. Short did win an additional gold in the 4×200 free relay, but his 1:46.08 leadoff was nearly a second off his season best of 1:45.16. Three gold medals is hard to argue with, but we have seen him be even better before than he was in Glasgow. Lewis Clareburt (New Zealand) – Lewis Clareburt is one of those swimmers who is always near the top of his events, but without the spotlight of some of those around him. He had a fantastic Games, and seems to be getting better and better ever since his breakout bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships. Clareburt won two gold medals and one silver medal for New Zealand, setting a new lifetime best in the 200 IM and 200 fly, running down the field yet again in the latter to defend his title. He was a whisker away from his Oceanian record in the 400 IM, pacing his race to perfection to beat the field by a couple of seconds in 4:08.72. An appearance in the 200 free final came on the final day as well, but that is very much a quaternary event for Clareburt. He is more-do-it-all for New Zealand, and is now just one gold medal behind Valerie Young for the most successful New Zealand athlete at the Games in that metric. Sam Williamson (Australia) – Sam Williamson went two-from-two in his individual events, and claimed a pair of relay gold medals as well. He backed up his performances at Australian Trials, showed that his world title from 2024 will likely not be a one-off, and comes away with a significant upgrade from the one individual silver and one individual bronze he won four years ago. With a strong field featuring Adam Ramsay-Peaty, Filip Nowacki, and Michael Houlie, Williamson seemed the most composed, most assured, and most confident swimmer among them. One of only four swimmers to win at least two gold medals here, he deserves every ounce of praise.Breakout Swimmer Of The Meet: Flynn Southam, Australia
Flynn Southam doesn’t quite make the overall swimmer shortlist, but his win here is fully deserved. Not many people beat Kyle Chalmers head-to-head in the 100 free – that list stands at Caeleb Dressel, Duncan Scott, David Popovici, Pan Zhanle, and now Matt Richards and Southam – but he did so with the confidence of a swimmer who knew what he was capable of.
He had not quite had the breakout some expected after ageing up, having been a prolific junior, but this year saw him fully realise his potential. A Commonwealth Games record of 47.09 in the 100 free, with two further swims of 47.13 and 47.29, saw him become the #11 performer in history, and his 46.55 anchor leg on the men’s medley relay was the #11 performance ever.
Southam won silver in the 50 free as well in 21.44, eight tenths of a second faster than his best before this season. He won three gold medals on relays as well in Glasgow, and is now what we knew he could always be – one of the very best in the world at what he does.
Honorable Mentions:
Kai Taylor (Australia) – Yes, Taylor missed the 100 free final at this meet. But in the 200 free final, which he was in an outside lane for, he did exactly what you’re meant to do from an outside lane – absolutely send it. He had never made an international final before the final day of the Commonwealth Games. He has had strong relay performances at the 2023 and 2025 World Championships, but had a damaging habit of adding time in domestic finals and missing individual qualification. The years when he did qualify, he didn’t show up at his best, making this a very different meet for Taylor. He made a final. He won a final. He was the only swimmer in that final to drop time, and he went out and raced. He should have the confidence now to press on to the World Championships next year and LA the year after. Ben Armbruster (Australia) – Ben Armbruster made his first international team at the 2024 World Championships, but had never made an international final nor won an international medal before the games. He now has two of the former and three of the latter. Having qualified in the 50 fly and 100 fly, he dropped time to medal in both events while matching the Australian record in the 50, and swam on the prelims relay of the medley relay which won gold. He sliced 0.17 seconds off in the 50 fly to drop from 22.90 to 22.73 and tie for gold – a time that would be challenging for the final at worlds to one that would be challenging for medals there. The 100 fly saw a 0.33 second drop from 50.91 to 50.58, jumping him up into the top 50 all-time. The 100 fly headlines may have been about the battle between Matt Temple and Josh Liendo, but Armbruster was less than two tenths of a second off the pair. Armbruster looks to have staked his claim over the second spot in men’s fly, which recently has been something of a revolving door for Australia. Ruard van Renen (South Africa) – Van Renen swam at the World Short Course Championships in 2024 and at the World University Games last summer, but this was his first big international meet for South Africa. He looked fantastic almost every time he touched the water, slicing a chunk off his 50 back PB to win bronze in 24.51, and doing the same in the 100 back to win bronze again in 53.31. He moves into the African top 5 performers in both events now, and added a PB of 52.14 in the 100 fly and a 48.3 split on the men’s 4×100 free relay. He comes away with four medals, two individual and two on relays, and is firmly established in long course after excelling in the NCAA over the last four years.Junior Swimmer Of The Meet: Oliver Dawson, Canada
Dawson was the only junior male swimmer to win a medal at this year’s Commonwealth Games, getting the better of former world record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook in the battle for silver in the 200 breaststroke. He clocked a new lifetime best of 2:08.39, which garnered him the final long course Canadian record he did not own.
Dawson was just 0.05 seconds away from Adam Ramsay-Peaty for bronze in the 100 breast as well, and tied for 7th in the 50 breast final. After a strong World Championships last summer, Dawson seems to have established himself as someone who swims his best at the big meets.
Three finals, one medal, and a Canadian record make for a good week’s work for Dawson. He has had a fantastic season, and his performances in Glasgow were the icing on the cake.
Honorable Mentions:
Gabriel Shepherd, England Shepherd has been a success at junior level for Great Britain, winning five European Junior medals and two World Junior medals across the last two years, but added another three here on English relays. He was no passenger on those, splitting 47.73 in the final of the men’s 4×100 free relay for the fifth-fastest split in the field, and leading off the mixed 4×100 free relay in 48.30 in the heats. He led off the men’s 4×200 free relay in 1:46.67, just off his lifetime best, and made the individual 100 free final where he placed 6th in 48.52. He proved that his swims at the Aquatics GB Championships in April were no fluke, and did not look fazed by the level of competition he found himself in. He looks like he will be a fantastic addition to the men’s relays, and has the chance to prove that even further at the European Championships in August. Henry Allan (Australia) – Allan made three finals, placing 5th in the 50 back, 5th in the 100 back, and – wait for it – 5th in the 200 back. None were quite personal best times, but he was just 0.05 seconds away in the 200 back and 0.06 seconds off in the 100 back. He led off for the victorious men’s 4×100 medley relay on the final day to win his first senior international medal, and for a first taste of senior international swimming this was a strong meet for the youngster who is now established as Australia’s go-to backstroker Harry Milne (Wales) – Milne set a new best of 49.42 on the leadoff leg in prelims of the mixed 4×100 free, and swam on the men’s 4×200 free relay in the morning the next day. Both relays won bronze, making for a wildly successful first senior international meet for the Welsh 18-year-old. His best performance came on another relay. In Milne’s final swim of the meet, in the men’s 4×100 medley relay final, he clocked a monster 48.32 split. That was his fastest ever, over a second under his flat start best and three tenths faster than his previous best split of 48.60.Performances Of The Meet
Pieter Coetze, 100 back – Which one? All of them. Coetze got faster every time he swam, and in all three of his sub-52 swims he looked a class apart from the field. His 51.71 from the medley relay final was spectacular, and in both that swim and his 51.77 from the individual final he genuinely looked like he was going to touch in 51-low. Scarily good swims from a scarily good swimmer Sam Short, 400 free final – Not quite as fast as he was at Australian Trials, but Short was in a different league from the final going on around him. He led by two seconds at halfway and, even with no one to push him, swam his fourth-fastest time ever. Flynn Southam, 100 free final – A masterclass in self-confidence from Southam. He went in with the knowledge that he could and should win this race, but he has often played second fiddle at best internationally in recent years, having never made a major final before. A half-second margin of victory does not show just how much he dominated this race. Cam McEvoy, 50 free final – McEvoy was exceptional in this race, emerging from the wash suddenly half a body length ahead and pulling away with ease. Just the fourth-ever swim under 21 seconds, this was the mark of a swimmer in his prime. Filip Nowacki, 200 breast final – Like Southam, this was all about the assuredness of the young swimmer in one of the middle lanes. Nowacki was never losing this race and swam it exactly as he would have planned. Oliver Dawson was only half a second back, but may well have been in a different country with how much that fazed the youngster from Jersey.Races Of The Meet
Men’s 200 free final – What’s not to love about outside smoke? The deepest race of the meet, with the swimmers in the centre lanes match-racing each other while Kai Taylor scorched out to an early lead that he never relinquished Men’s 100 breast final – Michael Houlie out in 26.53, Adam Ramsay-Peaty taking over with 25 meters to go, and Sam Williamson and Filip Nowacki charging in the final ten. Absolute cinema. Men’s 4×100 Medley relay – South Africa’s front-loaded approach made this wildly entertaining to watch. Men’s 4×200 free relay – Who had England pushing Australia nearly all the way? James Guy and Kai Taylor threw down blistering splits, and Wales won a feel-good bronze.Moments Of The Meet
Michael Houlie sets the 50 breast African record in the 100 breast semi-finals – He’d gone out almost as fast in the heats, but seeing him move into the top ten in history and lower Cameron van der Burgh’s African record while swimming a completely different event was something special. Duncan Scott anchors Scotland to bronze in the mixed 4×100 medley – Duncan Scott. Glasgow. Relay. A medal from miles back. Cue the noise which, some say, could be heard in the original host location of Victoria, Australia. Archie Goodburn makes his first Commonwealth Games final – Just over two years ago, in the leadup to the Olympic Games, Goodburn received a call with some devastating news – a scan had come back showing that he had oligodendrogliomas, a form of brain cancer. He was the Scottish record holder in the 50 breast and had realistic dreams of making the Olympic team in the 100 breast with a PB of 1:00.20 from the year before, but now had to deal with the reality that he may not see 40. So for him to still be competing at an elite level two years later, making his first Commonwealth final after placing 7th in the 50 breast semi-finals, is nothing short of extraordinary. Goodburn has campaigned for the Brain Cancer Justice Campaign since his diagnosis, with fellow Commonwealth Games swimmer Greg Butler running a marathon in 2024 to help raise funds for the Astro Brain Tumour Fund, another charity which is dedicated to helping individuals battling brain cancer. There may not have been a more popular finalist across the six days in the pool. View this post on Instagram
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Breakout Nation: Uganda
Jersey would be the easy choice here with Filip Nowacki, but, as they are generally part of Great Britain, Uganda gets the vote instead. Their highest previous non-para finish was 27th, by Avice Meya in the women’s 50 fly in 2018, but they came away with two semi-finalists in Tendo Kaumi (50 free, 11th) and Jesse Ssengonzi (100 fly, 16th). They placed 11th in the men’s 4×100 free relay but made the final in the mixed free relay, and Tendo Mukalazi (50 free, 23rd) is also a success story.
Honorable Mentions
Namibia – Ronan Wantenaar has been a story of success for the World Aquatics Scholarship program, and made his first Commonwealth final in the 50 breast. The men’s 4×100 medley relay rounded off with an appearance in the final and a new national record to boot. Oliver Durand looks like a key piece for them as well. Cook Islands – A first ever final swim, with Jacob Story placing 8th in the men’s 200 breast. The 18-year-old looks to be one for the future, and there could be even more from him in four years’ time. Fiji – A first ever final for Fiji thanks to Tolu Young’s 6th-place finish in the men’s 50 free, although they didn’t manage to break the relay records that they had the ability to. Reuben Taylor and Hansel McCaig looked good in sprint free with Samuel Yalimaiwai making the 50 breast semi-final with a 28.11, a national record by nearly half a second.Read the full story on SwimSwam: 2026 Commonwealth Games Men’s Swammy Awards
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