University of Edinburgh Sport celebrates its best Commonwealth Games and launches Edinburgh Wildcats

The University of Edinburgh has enjoyed its most successful Commonwealth Games to date. A total of 21 athletes connected to the university competed across six sports at Glasgow 2026, returning with four gold, three silver and three bronze medals. The university says that haul would have placed it 12th out of 72 competing nations in the final medal table.

Wheelchair racer and alumna Melanie Woods led the way with two golds, in the women's T54 400m and T54 1500m. She won the 1500m title twice, taking both the original final and a rerun staged two days later after an appeal, and was also given the David Dixon Award for fair play and contribution to sport.

In the pool, medical student Faye Rogers won the women's 200m individual medley SM10 on the opening day, while Stephen Clegg won gold in the men's S13 50m freestyle and silver in the 100m freestyle S13. Ciara Schlosshan and Anna Morgan won silver in Scotland's women's 4x100m medley relay, and Josh Mitchell took bronze in the mixed medley relay. On the track, postgraduate Megan Keith won bronze in the women's 5000m, and Stephen Mackenzie took long jump bronze with 8.08m, a record for a Scottish competitor on home soil.

Building on that success, the university has launched Edinburgh Wildcats, an umbrella group bringing together its 70 sporting disciplines, around 200 teams and 10,000 athletes. Described as the first in the UK to adopt the American collegiate sporting model, it aims to encourage the people of Edinburgh to get behind the university's athletes.

Double Olympian and alumna Eilidh Doyle, the university's global ambassador for sport, said the facilities and support available to young athletes were second to none. Mark Munro, director of sport and active health, said the aim was to bring athletes together and champion the talent among current students and alumni.

The university's sporting alumni include Sir Chris Hoy, Katherine Grainger and Gregor Townsend.

Details of University of Edinburgh Sport, its facilities and Edinburgh Wildcats are on the university's sport website.