Building On A Record-breaking Year
The success of Birmingham 2022 means that this year has been monumental for Commonwealth Games England. Here, Team England’s newly-announced Chef de Mission, Francesca Carter-Kelly, explains how the team will use that success as a platform for further progress.
It’s well documented that Birmingham 2022 was Team England’s most successful Commonwealth Games to date. Our athletes racked up a record-breaking haul of 176 medals, while it was the most diverse team we’ve ever had competing at a Games. As deputy Chef de Mission at Birmingham, I lived and breathed the time, effort and energy that went into gelling the team and curating a culture for those athletes to thrive. I look back at the Birmingham cycle with an immense source of pride.
Now, though, I’m looking forward with excitement and inspiration as I take on my new role of Chef de Mission for the forthcoming Victoria 2026 Games cycle.
Being the host-nation this year was incredible but there’s no escaping the fact that Victoria will be very different to Birmingham. We’ll have over 400 athletes competing in 22 different sports, will be based across five village sites – with a challenge of distance between villages – and will have travel logistics and a time difference to contend with.
It’s therefore more important than ever that we create a ‘One Team England’ feel. We firmly believe that everybody – athletes, coaches, support staff, sponsors and partners – needs to feel connected and supported to help the team deliver their best possible performance for England. Carefully developing and embedding that culture requires a lot of work, and there are a lot of stakeholders who play a part in that, but there’s a real opportunity to build on how we did it in Birmingham as we look ahead to Victoria.
Of course, all of that planning and preparation is well under way. We’re working very closely with performance directors across the sporting governing bodies, and a big part of my role will be to really immerse myself in all of those sports to understand how we as Team England can best support their unique performance requirements. The programme also features new sports in BMX, coastal rowing, and golf, while shooting will return to the Games in 2026. My challenge is to bring all the different elements and individual requirements together so that our athletes can thrive.
Victoria also presents a different opportunity for our partners and sponsors. They hold an important role in helping to facilitate competition and supporting us to create a winning environment for our athletes, but crucially there’s an opportunity to connect the action on the ground in Victoria with supporters and fans back home in England too. Our partners and brands can not only help us to tell the story of this Games cycle; they have the opportunity to become part of it with us.
We’ll be visiting Victoria in early 2023 to get an on-the-ground perspective. There’s a big focus on creating a preparation camp and training hubs that will allow the athletes to connect and prepare as Team England before they ultimately move into the villages for competition. We have the experience of Birmingham, and a wealth of feedback from our athletes, so I’m excited to be leading the team forwards into this cycle.
As with any multi-sport event, there will be a whole host of measures centered around athlete experience but, predominantly, once an athlete has been selected to represent Team England, we want the core ethos of togetherness to remain the same: it’s about being proud to be part of Team England, and knowing that we’re doing absolutely everything in our power to create the best performance environment for the team to perform.
2022 will live long in the memory, but now it’s full focus on the future with Team England.
Our partners and brands can not only help us to tell the story of this Games cycle; they have the opportunity to become part of it with us.
