Filip Nowacki will lead Jersey's 21-strong squad at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow, putting the 18-year-old world junior breaststroke champion at the front of the island's bid for a breakthrough. Jersey's team was named with the Games still months away, but the headline is already clear: the swimmer who won the British 200m breaststroke title earlier this year is the man carrying the loudest expectation.
That is why readers are looking now. Nowacki has been in form all year, adding 100m and 200m global youth titles to his resume, and this month he became the first British swimmer to go under a minute for 100m at all four strokes. He is chasing a place in history for Jersey too, aiming to become the island's first medallist since 1990.
Jersey's squad is broad enough to make that feel less like a slogan and more like a target. The island is sending nine swimmers, with Nowacki part of a group that has already delivered a first for Jersey in the men's 4x100m medley relay. Its five-strong athletics team is the largest Jersey has ever taken to a Commonwealth Games, while Jersey-born, New Zealand-based sprinter Zach Saunders returns for a second appearance and joins island 100m record holder Steve Mackay and Jamie Oldham to give Jersey three sprinters for the first time. Evan Campbell and Lucy Woodward will also make island history as the first to compete in the decathlon and heptathlon.
The squad also includes Steven Rabet, the first judoka to represent Jersey since Chay Pike in 1990, and Malcolm de Sousa, who will appear at his fifth Commonwealth Games after debuting for Jersey in Delhi in 2010. Jean Cross, the chef de mission, said the Games remain the highest level many of Jersey's athletes can reach under their own flag, because they can later be taken up by Team GB. That makes Glasgow more than another stop on the calendar for Jersey. It is the last chance for this group to stand together as Jersey, and perhaps the best chance in years to turn depth into a medal when the Games run from 23 July to 2 August.
