Malaysia set to lose 16 medals at 2026 Commonwealth Games - Hannah

KUALA LUMPUR - Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh expressed her expectation that Malaysia would lose 16 medals following the removal of several medal-potential sports from the 2026 Commonwealth Games, set to take place in Scotland from July 23 to August 3.

Despite this setback, she stressed that Malaysia respected the organisers' decision regarding which sports would be included in the prestigious multi-sport event.

"After yesterday’s announcement, a preliminary forecast indicated that Malaysia would lose 16 medals due to the dropped sports.

"However, we respect the organiser’s decision. This is the prerogative of the organiser; every organiser is given the flexibility to choose the sports.

"We still have sports with medal potential, such as weightlifting and lawn bowls, so we do have some advantages," Hannah was quoted saying by Bernama at a media conference at the launch of the 2024 ISNext Programme at the National Sports Institute (NSI) in Kuala Lumpur today.

The Commonwealth Sports Federation (CGF) had confirmed Glasgow as the host city for the 2026 Commonwealth Games after Malaysia declined the offer to replace the Australian state of Victoria, which was the original host.

For the upcoming Games, only 10 sports will be contested across four venues within a 12.8-kilometre radius, a decrease from the 19 sports featured during the 2022 edition in Birmingham, England.

The sports scheduled for the 2026 Commonwealth Games include athletics and para-athletics; swimming and para-swimming; artistic gymnastics; track cycling and para track cycling; netball; weightlifting and para powerlifting; boxing; judo; lawn bowls and para lawn bowls; as well as 3x3 basketball and 3x3 wheelchair basketball.

Notably, diving, archery, badminton, T20 cricket, hockey, rowing, rugby sevens, and squash are among the sports that will not be contested in the 2026 edition.