As a teenager, Maddy Silcock’s best chance of making it to the Commonwealth Games appeared to be a member of Scotland’s athletics team.
A talented 60m and 100m sprinter, Silcock competed for Scotland at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017. And so, nearly a decade on, to have been included in Team Scotland’s track cycling squad is something that, in her sprinting days, she could never have envisaged.
It was as a teenager, though, that Silcock peaked as an athlete and having hit a plateau in her early twenties, she finally took the advice of her athletics coach who suggested she try track cycling in the hope she could transfer her skills from the athletics track onto the cycling track.
Having never set foot in a velodrome, though, Silcock admits the potential transition was a daunting prospect.
“Going in the velodrome the first time was terrifying. I knew a little bit about track cycling and I knew who Chris Hoy was but I'd never set foot in a velodrome until that day when I got on the bike,” the 26-year-old says.
“I'd never been on a fixed gear bike, I didn't know how cleats worked or anything and it does feel a bit daunting to try something new when you’re in your mid-twenties.
The Aberdeenshire native began with sessions at the Newport Velodrome in Wales, where she was based for her job as a physio and relatively quickly, it became apparent that she had considerable potential on two wheels.
It was at the start of 2026 when Silcock decided she had to give cycling a real shot, though.
She uprooted her life from Wales to Glasgow in order to pursue selection for the Commonwealth Games and her audacious gamble has paid off in spectacular style, with Silcock adding bronze in the team sprint at the British Championships to the Scottish team sprint title she won at the tail-end of 2025.
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And it was last month that the best moment of all came for Silcock. She was at work when the call came to inform her she’d been selected for Team Scotland’s cycling squad for Glasgow 2026 and she had to break briefly from her physio duties to process the news.
“It was really emotional (being told I’d been select for the Commonwealth Games),” she says.
“I work full-time as a physio in the NHS and I was in the bathroom in the hospital. I got the phone call but I was strange because I couldn't celebrate straight away because I had to go back to seeing my patients and go back into normal life.
“I'm really excited, though and it feels really surreal. It feels like a bit of a full circle moment having gone to the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017 and back then, I would never have imagined competing in a senior major games.”
Silcock, who will race the sprint events in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome at Glasgow 2026, admits her last six months in particular have resembled Groundhog Day as she attempts to be in peak condition for the Commonwealth Games whilst still working as a physio.
Any hint of a social life has been forfeited, she admits, but it’s a sacrifice she’s been delighted to make.
“Combining work and training is really tough,” she says.
“I go through ups and downs, especially when we're in a heavy training block, when it's physically and mentally exhausting.
“It helps that I've got support around me from Scottish Cycling but it does take a lot of mental and physical effort. I’ve done it for quite some time now but it has stepped up in the last six months.
“At the moment there's not much other than work, train, eat and sleep. I haven't had much time to go out and socialise and often if I do have any time to myself, I need a couple of hours to decompress.”
Silcock is well aware of how significant this Commonwealth Games is, not only as an opportunity to add her first major championship medal to her cabinet but also as a springboard onto even bigger and better things. Her compatriot and Glasgow 2026 teammate, Neah Evans, did exactly this at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and now has multiple world titles and Olympic medals to her name. And Silcock admits she’s hopeful of using Glasgow 2026 as a similar platform on which to showcase her abilities.
“If things go well in Glasgow, there’ll hopefully be opportunities after this to continue racing, depending on how it goes,” she says.
“So it'll be nice to put myself out there at the Commonwealth Games. It was at Nationals in February when people began noticing me a little bit. So going to the Commonwealth Games will hopefully put me out there a little bit more.”
