Agata Herbert is preparing for a second Commonwealth Games appearance after coming close to retirement following Birmingham 2022. The 28-year-old architect and weightlifter has earned another call-up to Team Scotland and will compete on home soil at Glasgow 2026.
From Retirement to Redemption
Agata Herbert was on the brink of retirement after Birmingham 2022 but the weightlifter now has a second Commonwealth Games to look forward to. The 28-year-old, who also works as an architect, has received another Team Scotland call-up and will compete in front of a home crowd this summer. But were it not for the encouraging words of her coach, Herbert would be four years into post-retirement life.
“After the last Commonwealth Games, I was very close to retiring,” said Herbert, who will compete in the 77kg category. “I thought I had achieved what I wanted, and I was ready to either go back to CrossFit or move onto another sport. I met my coach to say goodbye and I prepared a thank you book with a little Team Scotland pin. Then he said I could improve technically so I gave it another shot. I never expected to carry on for this long.”
Preparations Underway
Herbert is now in the thick of her preparations as she bids to step onto the Commonwealth platform once more. The experienced weightlifter was born in Poland but later moved to Musselburgh, and is a two-time Polish national champion. She competed in the Polish nationals less than a day before her Team Scotland media duties, taking home third overall.
“It's a great day for Scottish weightlifting,” said Herbert. “I had about 10 minutes of sleep after the nationals, trying to make it here in time. It's a huge thing, and it was really important for me to get here. It was definitely worth it.”
Unconventional Journey
Herbert’s journey to weightlifting was not a conventional one. She reached Polish national level in basketball before taking up CrossFit, where her passion for lifting weights began to take shape. “I really fell in love with weightlifting very quickly,” she said. “As I was seeing the improvement, I wanted more and more of it, and it became my real passion all the way up until the Commonwealth Games. My love for the sport has been growing over time. The most amazing thing is that you can always improve something. At the highest level, we're talking about centimetres - even millimetres. If the bar is a little bit off, it cannot go in a direction you would like it to, which makes the sport really interesting.”
Technical Mastery
One of the things Herbert loves most about weightlifting is this technical side of it, with the snatch her favourite lift due to its mixture of precision and flexibility. But she holds Scottish records in the clean and jerk and the total, as well as the snatch, for both the 77kg and 86kg categories.
Herbert’s favourite career memory to date is Birmingham 2022, where she finished seventh in the women’s 76kg category. “This time I'm going to be even more ready because I'll remember how important it was,” she said. “I'll make sure that I'm enjoying every single second.”
Follow Team Scotland's journey at Glasgow 2026 at @team_scotland on Instagram.
