Tom Wright says qualifying for the Commonwealth Games carried extra meaning after being able to share the moment with his grandfather shortly before his death. The 21-year-old will now make his debut for Team Scotland at Glasgow 2026 after a rapid rise in weightlifting.
When weightlifter Tom Wright hit the Team Scotland Commonwealth Games qualifying total, there was one person in particular he wanted to tell. The 21-year-old has been called up to represent Scotland at Glasgow 2026 after lifting a total of 306kg at the Senior European Weightlifting Championships in April.
Just a few weeks after this competition, Wright's grandfather passed away.
"I wanted this so much for him," said Wright. "I was actually able to tell him I'd hit the qualifying total just before he passed away. There is a lot more riding on it now, it means a lot."
Though he grew up in England, Wright's father is from Jedburgh and his mother is half-Italian, half-Nigerian. He has always been proud of his Scottish heritage and even dreamed of playing rugby for Scotland one day. While that didn't happen, he has worked hard to represent Scotland in a different sport, and his weightlifting journey began when he watched a CrossFit documentary at the age of 14.
"I went to my local CrossFit gym and ended up doing CrossFit competitively for five years," said Wright, who will compete in the 94kg category.
"Through that, I was told to start up weightlifting. I officially only started weightlifting in November 2024 - that was my first competition.
"I've just started the sport so to have qualified in under two years is a feeling I can't even explain."
Unlike the multitude of exercises CrossFit athletes must perfect, weightlifters only have to focus on two lifts: the snatch, and the clean and jerk. For Wright, this was a welcome change.
"CrossFit is a sport where you can't hide, you need strengths across the board," he said.
"If you're a bad weightlifter, you can't succeed, but I've felt a bit alleviated by the fact that I'm focusing on two lifts and being able to see how far I can take them."
In a year and a half, Wright has already posted personal bests of a 143kg snatch and a 166kg clean and jerk. He points to Rocky quotes, along with funk and soul music, as inspiration for his success.
"In Rocky III, he says, 'there is no tomorrow!'" said Wright. "So, before big lifts, I'm always saying that there is no tomorrow - it's a now or never thing.
"I'm a big music fan, I like 70s, 80s, funk and soul. My heaviest lifts ever have been to Kool & the Gang, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder."
On the Commonwealth Games platform, Wright will not have those musing melodies to rely on. But he will have a deep appreciation for the magnitude of the occasion.
"I've spoken to people who have gone to previous Commonwealth Games, and the one thing they tell me is that they were so focused on how well they could do, that they didn't take in the experience of being there," he said.
"I really want to absorb it all and then when I compete, it's just trusting my training and doing as well as I can."
Follow Team Scotland's journey at Glasgow 2026 at @team_scotland on Instagram.
