Scotland, the birthplace of rugby sevens in the 1880s, will not feature the sport at the streamlined 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Other sports being cut include field hockey, triathlon, badminton, Twenty20 cricket, squash and diving.
The revamped event will include a 10-sport program across four venues, with athletics and swimming as mandatory fixtures. Additional sports are track cycling, gymnastics, netball, weightlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and 3x3 basketball.
There will also be integrated para events in six of those sports: athletics, swimming, track cycling, weightlifting, bowls and basketball.
The Games will take place from July 23 to Aug. 2 after Glasgow stepped in when the Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year because of rising costs.
“It was not easy to decide which sports to include,” Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Ian Reid told the BBC on Tuesday.
“I think everybody recognizes that these events need to be more affordable, lighter and we would have loved to have all of our sports and all of our athletes competing, but unfortunately, it’s just not deliverable or affordable for this time frame,” Reid said.
Athletes and support staff will be housed in hotels. Around 3,000 athletes are expected to compete from up to 74 Commonwealth nations and territories, representing a combined total of 2.5 billion people—one-third of the world’s population.
More than 500,000 tickets will be available for spectators.
Commonwealth Games Federation Chief Executive Katie Sadleir said, “The 2026 Games will be a bridge to the Commonwealth Games of tomorrow, an exciting first step in our journey to reset and redefine the Games as a truly collaborative, flexible and sustainable model for the future that minimizes costs, reduces the environmental footprint and enhances social impact. In doing so, increasing the scope of countries capable of hosting.”
Glasgow hosted the event in 2014 at a cost of more than 540 million pounds.
