Sarah Adlington is acutely aware of the pressure that’s upon her shoulders at Glasgow 2026.
She is, after all, chasing her own, unique, piece of history.
Adlington has already won two Commonwealth Games gold medals in judo. The first came 12 years ago, at Glasgow 2014, with the second four years ago, at Birmingham 2022.
No judo player has ever won three Commonwealth Games titles but, if all goes to plan, Adlington will become the first at Glasgow 2026.
The 39-year-old from Edinburgh is well-versed in coping with expectation. She has, after all, been an internationalist for almost two decades. But the level of expectation upon her as she heads into Glasgow 2026 is, she admits, on another level to anything she’s experienced previously in her career.
“This Games, I think the pressure's greater (than ever before),” the +78kgs fighter says.
“People assume if you’ve won it twice before, you’ll win it again but I have to remind them that this is sport and anyone that's played sport at any level knows that there is no should have, could have, would have. This is judo, and anything can happen.
“The outside noise and the pressure is more than it was at Birmingham 2022, or certainly my head is perceiving it to be more. Even though this is 100 percent a bonus Games for me, there’s much more noise around my name than there was four years ago.”
Adlington has put in place several mechanisms to help her cope with the pressure. And the best way of relieving the pressure, she has found, is reminding herself that having fought for GB countless times, including at the Olympic Games, anything more she achieves is a bonus rather than necessary to cement her legacy.
“I speak to a sport psychologist and it's about control the controllables. That's all you can ever do. It's a cliche but it is true,” she says.
“I'm reminding myself of that a lot because there's been so much going on.
“Whatever happens at this Games doesn't change what I've already achieved. If it all went completely wrong in Glasgow, I'm still Sarah Adlington, double Commonwealth Games gold medallist, represented Scotland three times and an Olympian. And if you'd asked five year old Sarah Adlington, who was watching the Sydney 2000 Olympics on the television if she’d be happy with that, she would be because I’ve achieved way more than I ever thought I could.
“That's what I keep telling myself to take the pressure off. People keep reminding me to just enjoy it, fight hard and that’s all you can do.”
Adlington is, by some distance, Scotland’s most experienced member of the judo squad for this Games, with such longevity something that’s exceedingly rare in elite sport.
But all good things must come to an end and whatever the result in Glasgow, this will be Adlington’s final ever competitive appearance on the judo mat.
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Retirement is, she admits, a somewhat daunting prospect considering being a judo player is everything she’s known her entire adult life but given she’ll turn 40 just days after the Games end, she’s certain now is the right time to hang up her gi for good. And it’s this assuredness that now is the right time for her to call it a day that makes taking the leap into retirement considerably less scary than it can be for some athletes.
“Waking up the day after I’ve fought, I'll feel numb, probably, but I've not thought about it too much,” says Adlington, who is a Programme Manager for Edinburgh Judo.
“The prospect of retirement is quite scary but whatever the result in Glasgow, life goes on. I always remind the kids I work with of that.
“It’s just judo, it's not life or death.
“I speak to a lot of people about how lucky we are (to be athletes). I'm competing because it's what I want to do and it’s important to remember that.
“When I missed out on qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016 by one place and then my dad died, I was thinking why have I've been crying over judo? That was a really good reminder that judo does mean a lot, but then there's life. They run together but they're also completely different things.
“And the people that love and care about you don't care about medals - they don't care if you win, lose or draw.
“So whatever the result at this Games, I’ll wake up on the 3rd of August and I'll still have a life to live.”
