'Excitement and nerves' for Archibald as Games loom

Commonwealth Games

Where: Glasgow When: 23 July-2 August 2026

Katie Archibald can still see herself rampaging down the home straight to claim a points race bronze at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

She can still hear the crowd and recapture the feelings she had as a 20-year-old in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in 2014. "A little vignette" is how she describes the out-of-body experience.

"I can watch myself on the bike," Archibald tells BBC Sport Scotland.

"Just pedalling as hard as I can because of how special it is to race at home. So I'm really looking forward to another crack at that."

The Scot has encountered a lifetime of joy and sorrow in the intervening decade, but the hope is she will have the chance to savour some more of the former next summer when the the event returns to her hometown.

Archibald, Lauren Bell and Mark Stewart are the first three members of the Team Scotland cycling squad to have their places at the reimagined event confirmed and will be part of the biggest track cycling programme in Games history.

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But, given her recent run of wretched luck with injuries - having to withdraw from the Birmingham Games in 2022 and the Olympics two years later shortly before the events, the Glasgow native is refusing to get too excited at the prospect.

"With any of these events you get this little mix of excitement and nerves," the 31-year-old double Olympic gold medallist said.

"This is a sort of landmark on route to the biggest race day that we have in 2026, so I feel all full of butterflies.

"I got hit by a car before Birmingham and didn't make it to the Games, having done the announcement, the pictures, everything, so there's something in my chest that just feels a bit nervous."

Bell did make it to Birmingham but was a budding track and field athlete in 2014. Indeed, her standout memory is of the heptathlon at Hampden rather than anything in the Velodrome.

Having missed out on the medals in the sprint, team sprint and keirin in 2022, she is determined to remedy that next summer.

"I'm definitely pushing for a medal and I think that's an achievable goal," she said. "Training's been going well and I'm getting better with more experience.

"The Commonwealth Games is such a special race and any time we can have a Saltire on our backs, the Scottish flags waving, and my friends and family in the crowd is really special."