Mail Sport Comment: Let’s make Glasgow 2026 the Sir Chris Hoy Games
- Naming the Commonwealth Games after the legendary Scot is a huge opportunity to raise awareness about prostate cancer
- The impact of Doddie Weir’s charity on MND shows that lives can be saved through the power of sport
- In a city with a velodrome named after him, Hoy’s name should be front and center at Glasgow 2026
It’s official. The Commonwealth Games will return to Glasgow in 2026. The sports have been selected, the locations chosen.
All we have to do is make it ‘The Sir Chris Hoy Games’ and we’ll move full steam ahead.
Because make no mistake: there is now an opportunity to do something much more important than just honoring the legendary Scot, who revealed this weekend that he is suffering from terminal cancer.
While that should of course be high on the organizing committee’s to-do list, there is an opportunity here to do so much more: save lives.
Just look at how the world of rugby and beyond embraced another Scottish sporting legend, Doddie Weir, after he made his ALS diagnosis public.
Just look at how his charity has done and continues to do such wonderful work in terms of raising money for those affected by the disease, while also funding crucial research into it.
Sir Chris Hoy should be installed as the face of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow
The six-time Olympic gold medalist is a hero to the people of Scotland
Hoy with rugby icon Doddie Weir, who helped raise awareness of motor neuron disease
We’ve already seen the ‘Hoy impact’. The six-time Olympic cycling gold medalist, from Edinburgh, revealed on Sunday that he had been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and was told he has two to four years to live.
His candid interview sent online searches about cancer to the highest level since announcements in February and March about the Royals’ diagnoses.
Visits to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity’s website were 34 per cent higher last year than on the average Sunday.
The online prostate cancer pages received 1,600 hits, a 132 percent increase over typical Sunday web traffic. The charity believes Sir Chris’s decision to be open about his diagnosis could save lives by encouraging people to consult their doctor about worrying symptoms.
Now think about what a platform like the Commonwealth Games could do in spreading that message. What a legacy that would be for the great man.
Glasgow 2026 may be scaled back, but it could be the most powerful and poignant Games yet. Let’s not waste such an incredible opportunity.