Reuben Ward backed up his historic gold medal in the men's all-around final with a silver on the pommel horse at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. The 21-year-old gymnast now has his sights set on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, where he hopes to represent Team GB.
Aim for LA 2028
Ward, whose parents are from East Kilbride, has relished wearing Scotland colours in Glasgow but has a bigger goal in mind. “This is a great stepping stone,” he said. “I think this competition so far — the team event, the all-around and today — has proven maybe to the higher-ups that I can hit a routine under pressure, which perhaps was in doubt before. Not because I hadn’t delivered, but just because of my past experiences. I think I’ve proved that a little bit, and I’m happy with that. We’ll see where it goes. But the main goal is LA 2028. I’m all in for that.”
Pommel Horse Success
Ward made headline news on Sunday when he became the first Scottish man to win the men's all-around title at the Commonwealth Games. On Monday, he competed in two individual finals, starting with a sixth-place finish in the floor final, where England's Luke Whitehouse won gold. The pommel horse was his stronger apparatus, and he faced reigning Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan, who made a costly mistake and missed the podium. Ward changed his routine just before starting, lowering the difficulty, and executed it perfectly, punching the air as the crowd gave a standing ovation. His score of 14.966 was just 0.044 short of Canada's gold medallist Jordan Carroll. “I wanted the gold medal a lot, and I knew that if I didn’t do an upgraded routine, I wouldn’t get it. I’d have no chance,” he said. “I knew I’d give myself a fighting chance if I hit the upgraded routine, and that’s what I went for. It wasn’t quite enough, but I’m still proud of myself. I had to make sure that I gave myself the best chance, and I did do that. It still felt a little bit short, but I’m probably quite hard on myself.” Ward has the parallel bars final on Tuesday but then plans to celebrate hard.
Teammate's Surprise Bronze
Ward was joined on the podium by Scotland teammate Cameron Lynn, who produced the best routine of his career to finish third. The 23-year-old, from Stirling, assumed his medal chances were dashed after Scotland finished fourth in the team final. He said: “Today I didn’t really feel much pressure. One, because I didn’t really think I was going to win a medal because of the standard of pommel horse work in this final. I was just trying to go for it, and thankfully it paid off. Scotland is a force to be reckoned with. Our goal is to prove that, and we’re starting to prove that. We’re a great country, and look at this. Can it get any better? I don’t think it can.”
