‘Sport made me, but it also broke me’ - Decorated athletes lift lid on brutal reality of elite competition at Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games

It was sparked by past comments made by Team England swimmer Adam Ramsay-Peaty, who endured struggles that left him ready to quit the sport.

Ramsay-Peaty is one of Great Britain’s most successful athletes. A three-time Olympic gold medallist and an eight-time world champion, amongst a great many other individual honours, on the outside looking in, he appeared to have it all.

But inside he was fighting a silent battle. A battle against himself. And it all came to a head in 2023 when the thought of training and even getting in the pool filled him with dread, a feeling at odds with the joy it had given him growing up and in his career to that point.

He took a step back from the sport to focus on his mental health and rediscovered his passion for swimming and competing, returning at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he won silver in the 100m breaststroke.

The highs and lows of sport have again been evident at the Glasgow 2026 Games. Ramsay-Peaty flew through the heats for the 100m and 50m breaststroke, only to pick up bronze medals in each.

The first of those in the 100m final left the 31-year-old in tears, the disappointment of failing to produce his best when it mattered most writ on his face. Perspective was found by Ramsay-Peaty after the same result in the 50m.

But both laid bare the internal battle many athletes face. It’s something that can, in theory, impact anyone operating at a high level, but it seems acutely to affect sportspeople, who are often so dedicated that their pursuit of greatness becomes their entire identity.

And the example of Ramsay-Peaty caused the athletes-turned-experts in the TNT Sports studio to share their own experiences in a remarkably candid segment.

Thomas, an Olympic silver medallist and the men’s 400m champion at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, revealed just how extreme the highs and lows were for him after a career that was plagued by injury.

"On the one hand, I sit here very, very grateful because sport has made me, it's who I am, but it's also the thing that broke me," the Welshman began. "What I mean by that is I had two or three really good years. And I loved nothing more than being known as that, ‘Oh, that's that big, tall, blonde guy, he's the 400m runner’.

"Everywhere I went, and bearing in mind, with respect to our bosses here, there were only four channels on television. So back in the 90s, I would say athletics was at its peak. It really was a golden era.

"Without trying to sound arrogant, anywhere I went in the UK, it was, ‘Oh, well done, mate. I love watching you run. Big up, you're brilliant. I love it when you beat the Americans’, and I felt so good. You can't beat that feeling."

Almost as quickly as the success and the adulation arrived, it was taken away for Thomas as physical ailments took their toll.

That bled into the mental side of things, and it wasn’t until he found a greater purpose that the storm passed.

He added: "Winning the Commonwealth Games, I was the first ever 400m runner along with Jamie Boyce to even make a 400m final, let alone win it and smash the Games record which stood for such a long time and I think this was as good as it got.

"That year I also was European champion. I won the World Cup. I had a Madame Tussauds waxwork made. I was only the second ever athlete behind Jesse Owens to be there and I just felt this is my life now.

"But as soon as it arrived to me, it was taken away. I had literally three good years and life was different then and the training was a lot harder. It wasn't as scientific and my body broke and I think I came off the back of the ‘98 season thinking this is me and to all my friends, everything was great.

"I’d earned a few quid from it. I was living a nice life, but inside I was broken because my body was letting me down, and I felt I couldn't turn to my parents and let them know I was hurting inside because I could only train twice a week. It became really apparent to me that I was no longer going to be able to be that world-class athlete.

"By about the year 2000, I was fighting a losing battle and, in the end, I had to walk away from the sport and in my head, I just lost all that identity. I just thought, ‘Who am I?’ If I'm not the athlete, what is my purpose here? And I honestly went through some really dark years when I think if it hadn't been for my kids, I don't know if I'd even still be here.

"It was only when my firstborn – this is tough – nearly died and he had the first 10 days in intensive care and we were told he might not even make it. If he does, he's going to have a lot of health issues for the rest of his life and it was only then that I actually thought, ‘hang on a minute, you're not just an athlete’.

"Athletics was a small part of my life. I'm a dad and someone needs me here and I think it took me 12-15 years to come to the realisation that it's alright to not be anyone any more, if that makes sense."

The words of Thomas really struck a chord with Paralympian Reid, who competed in the 100m, 200m and long jump during her athletics career.

Like Thomas, she grew up with sporting ambitions, but not in track and field. It was in a field, but one with posts at either end, played with an egg-shaped ball and 14 team-mates.

However, that dream was derailed when she was involved in an accident that sent her life in a different direction, one that again left her to deal with conflicting emotions.

"I actually resonated quite a lot with Iwan," Reid began. "My dream growing up was to be an international rugby superstar. It actually looked like it was going to come true and then one morning, in an instant, everything changed. I was run over by a boat and caught propellers, and the end result was that part of my right leg was amputated.

"I just remember being so angry. Of course, I was really thankful to still be alive. It was quite a serious accident, but at the same time, not like that. I didn't want to sit on the sideline watching everybody else fulfil their dream, and that was a really difficult period. I didn't like the way I looked, my artificial leg looked, and that was really difficult to contend with.

"Then this running blade came along, and it was this option to still do sport again. At the time, I didn't even know about the Paralympics. This wasn't a thing back in 2002. But it was just the fact that I could put this leg on and I could run. And I went from being really embarrassed about it to having the socket done in a hot pink cheetah print.

"Then these different opportunities opened up [and] in many ways, sport saved my life, as I still wanted to keep going, I wanted to try, and I learnt things might not always work out the way that you want it to, but just because they look a little bit different that can be okay too."

Sitting next to Thomas and Reid, Northern Ireland’s McClenaghan, who is still competing and is the reigning men’s Olympic champion on the pommel horse, explained the gratitude he feels to be able to compete on some of the grandest stages and the life lessons he is able to glean from that.

He said: "Just hearing your stories and hearing Adam's story, I just can't help but be grateful for sport to be such an awesome metaphor for life. I feel like that's why people watch sport. That's why I watch sport, certainly, is to hear the backstory of these athletes.

"It's why I enjoy my own sport so much, even through the really difficult days. I'm out here as a gymnast at these Commonwealth Games, and I had a rubbish day.

"Every single time a bad day happens or a good day happens, I always have some kind of takeaway from that and I know that whenever I leave gymnastics in my past, whenever that'll be, I'll take those lessons into my later life, into a new job, into my next path in my career and that will always be me."

As for Thirlby, a former England netball player and head coach, she was keen to highlight the sacrifices that have to be made in the pursuit of greatness, but that also come at a cost.

"I think it's important for us to feel we have permission to say we've sacrificed, but I think, we say that very much in a position of, as long as we've had choice, then we own it," Thirlby said.

"You know, I stepped on a plane, I was about half an hour away from Heathrow Airport before we left for the World Cup in 2023 and got the call to say my dad had just passed away. And there wasn't really a moment, rightly or wrongly, and you know, you feel guilt at the time, there wasn’t a moment where I didn’t see myself still stepping on the plane.

"We got to the check-in desk, nobody really knew. And then by the time we got to the gate, it kind of unearthed itself. But there wasn’t a moment when I thought my duty wasn’t still to the team. I still stepped on the plane and dealt with those things in my own way with my family.

"It's a choice and it's a decision I made, so I own that decision, but it is also still a sacrifice. And I think those things cohabit, and I think that's okay."

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