Laura Muir knows exactly what it feels like to compete, and win medals, on the highest sporting stages on the planet.
And while the Commonwealth Games may not be held by many in the esteem in which the Olympic Games or World Championships are, for Muir, it feels just as significant.
Or, more specifically, this summer’s Commonwealth Games feels just as significant.
Muir has been named in Scotland’s 39-strong track and field squad for Glasgow 2026, which begins next month, and the 33-year-old middle-distance specialist could not be taking her third appearance for Team Scotland more seriously.
“The Commonwealth Games is almost like an Olympics, for me, because you know it's only every four years and it's the only opportunity to run in a Scottish vest,” she says.
“The Commonwealths is always very special. Running at Hampden at Glasgow 2014, with it being a home one and my first big championships, it was so surreal so to come back to Glasgow again, it seems so strange. It feels really special to still be kicking about.”
Muir’s success on the global stage has come over 1500m. Olympic silver, world bronze and Commonwealth and European titles are a testament to how accomplished she is over four laps.
For Glasgow 2026, though, Muir will step-up the distances and rather than defend the Commonwealth Games 1500m title she won at Birmingham 2022, Muir will race the 5000m in Glasgow next month.
The competition over this longer distance will be fierce - while the Kenyan team has yet to be named, it will, admits Muir, inevitably be formidable - but stepping-up to the 5000m, temporarily, will be a valuable move for the Milnathort native as she looks towards the coming seasons and, specifically, the 2028 Olympic Games.
“I sat down with (my coaches) Laura (Weightman) and Steve (Cram) at the end of last year and we were looking at the 1500m. That event is so strong now, and it's just getting faster and faster. So, we thought, 'let's work and work on my endurance side.' That's one side of my training I've not had a huge amount of time and space to focus on, so we thought, let's really work on that, and hopefully that'll help with 1500m and just make me a stronger, more robust athlete for the years to come, for the Worlds and Olympics in these next couple of years,” explains Muir.
“So it is a long-term plan.
“This year, it's not a down year because it's still very busy but not being a global champs year, it gives us an opportunity to try a few new things in training and try a few things at championships which I've not had the opportunity to do before.
“This year is an experiment year. We’re trying to learn new things, we're seeing how I'm adapting to new training and whether we'll do that going forward or whether we'll need to shift it. So, it's big learning experience this year and then we can take all that information on board for the next two years to come.”
Muir is one of the most experienced athletes in Scotland’s Glasgow 2026 team that also includes Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman and Eilish McColgan. But alongside these seasoned pros is a raft of young athletes who are just breaking onto the international stage. And Glasgow 2026 will, asserts Muir, be an extremely valuable milestone in their career in the same way her Commonwealth Games debut back in Glasgow in 2014 was for her.
“That's the way the Commonwealths is going now, it’s a little bit more of a development championships,” says Muir.
“The experience I had in 2014 hugely helped me going forward, and we need to make sure those young athletes have those opportunities. Because if they become really fast, and then at their first championships are expected to do a lot, that can be intense amount of pressure,” she says.
“So it's really good that we have these (Commonwealth) championships to help the younger athletes experience these kind of environments and go through the processes so that when they are a bit more of a contender, whether it be for a final or medal, they've got that experience under their belt and are able to deal with it a little bit better.
“The Commonwealth Games are really important for that and the Scottish team is such a close-knit community. We're all really supportive of each other so hopefully the younger ones feel like there's athletes like myself that they can reach out to and ask for help if they need to, and hopefully I can give them my experience and help a little bit.”
One of the younger athletes who will be making their Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow is US-based sprinter, Rebecca Grieve. The 21-year-old 200m and 400m specialist from Edinburgh has emerged as one of Britain’s most-promising young talents in recent seasons and having competed for Great Britain in the junior ranks, is relishing the opportunity to step-up onto the senior stage.
“This competition is such a great opportunity to compete in a higher level,” Grieve, who reached the 400m final of the British Championships last weekend, finishing seventh, says.
“I've competed in junior Internationals but this is my first proper senior championships, and it will be a really good opportunity for me to show that I'm good enough to compete at the senior level. And I'm really excited to be part of such a great team.”
