Another triple cycling world champion – Anna Morris – credits the Commonwealth Games for giving her the platform that led to her first call-up by British Cycling.
But despite concerns the Commonwealths had more recently become a ‘mini-Olympics’, they are not just a stepping stone to the greatest show on earth.
For so many athletes in Wales, they are the highest peak they can reach. Certainly whilst donning the dragon.
Some feel so strongly about it that I have heard numerous Olympians and Paralympians speak of being unsatisfied with their career achievements until they have done it for Wales.
At the 2018 Games in Australia, I asked one Welsh gold medallist if they were looking forward to hearing the anthem on the podium.
“Yeah”, she said, “and I’m going to sing it too.”
The Games just bring out something different in Welsh athletes, which explains why there is still overwhelming positivity that they are going ahead in Glasgow at all.
