Johnson-Thompson and Asher-Smith withdraw from Commonwealth Games
Johnson-Thompson and Asher-Smith withdraw from Commonwealth Games
Fiona TomasThu, July 23, 2026 at 2:05 PM UTC
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Katarina Johnson-Thompson won Commonwealth gold in 2018 and 2022 but will not be defending her heptathlon title - Alastair Grant/AP
Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith are among the latest high-profile names to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games in a blow to the competition.
Johnson-Thompson, the Olympic heptathlete silver medallist who was crowned world champion three years ago, was due to compete in her third Commonwealth Games. The 33-year-old, who won back-to-back titles on Australia’s Gold Coast in 2018 and Birmingham in 2022, has been forced to pull out with an unspecified injury.
Asher-Smith, a longstanding figurehead of British women’s sprinting, and Olympic silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith, have also withdrawn from the event in Glasgow, where they were both set to run in the relays. Asher-Smith’s sprint team-mate Daryll Neita, the reigning 200m European silver medallist, has also pulled out.
The withdrawal of the British quartet is a significant blow for the scaled-back Games, which was already facing an uphill battle to attract household names in its fight to remain relevant. It will also do little to assure fans of its future longevity in the sporting calendar.
Hunt and Kerr flying flag for England and Scotland
Keely Hodgkinson, the golden girl of British athletics and 800 metres Olympic champion, has decided to skip the event in order to focus on next month’s European Championships in Birmingham, which begin on August 10. Josh Kerr, who was crowned the world mile record holder in London last week, will be the blockbuster name when he competes on August 1.
Amy Hunt, the reigning 200m world champion, will be another headline act in a sprinting field that will be without a flurry of A-listers. St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, the reigning 100m world and Olympic champion, and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, the men’s 100m world champion, have opted not to travel to the event. Other notable absentees include Botswanan duo Letsile Tebogo and Collen Kebinatshipi, the Olympic 200m and world 400m champions respectively.
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Dina Asher-Smith will not feature in Glasgow, where Amy Hunt will be the headline act - S Bardens/British Athletics via Getty Images
Elsewhere, Canadian teen swimmer Summer McIntosh, who enjoyed a breakthrough Paris Olympics two years ago after winning a trio of gold medals and a silver, has also chosen to forgo the event.
Team England did not specify Johnson-Thompson’s injury, but confirmed she had been replaced in the squad by Niamh Emerson, who took bronze behind Johnson-Thompson in 2018. Renee Regis, Ebuka Nwokeji, Tara Simpson-Sullivan and Tom Keen have all been added to England’s athletics squad in Glasgow.
Glasgow was parachuted in to save the Games after Victoria triggered a mini-crisis when the Australian state pulled out of hosting the event in 2024 amid fears it would suffer losses into the billions.
The Scottish city stepped in to save the event by offering to stage a slimmed-down version. This summer’s edition will feature just 10 sports compared to 19 four years ago, with fewer events.
When Glasgow last staged the event in 2014, track and field was staged at the 46,000-seat Hampden Park. This time round, the athletics will be held at the Scotstoun Stadium, which has a capacity of just over 10,000.
In another major change, the 2026 iteration will be the first time since 1954 that the Commonwealth Games will not be shown on the BBC after the corporation lost its longstanding broadcasting rights for the event.
TNT Sports, which comfortably outbid the BBC with its reported offer of £5m, is promising more than 600 hours of wall-to-wall coverage of the Games, while Channel 5 will run an evening highlights show and broadcast Thursday’s opening ceremony from the Hydro.
Source: “AOL Sports”
