‘I can’t believe I found this sport and this sport found me’ – Emma Finucane makes history at Commonwealth Games

Emma Finucane came into the Commonwealth Games dreaming of singing the Welsh national anthem atop the podium. After four days of competition, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau might have rather got stuck in the 23-year-old’s head, after she won four golds at Glasgow 2026, the first sprinter to take such a haul in one Games. Together with two bronzes from 2022, Finucane is also now Wales’s most successful Commonwealth Games athlete.

The rider from Carmarthen even ended the week in Scotland as Wales’s flagbearer at the closing ceremony, something that was revealed live to her on Welsh-language channel S4C. “I honestly feel like I’m in a dream,” she said, “I never thought I’d be carrying the Welsh flag in front of the whole nation. Riding for Wales, representing Wales, has been one of the best weeks in my life, and I can’t. It would be an honour to do that…

“Coming into these games, I hadn’t ridden for Wales for four years. Coming into these games, being part of Team Wales, we’ve been going on about how much passion we have, how much drive we have. We are such a small nation, but we have so much belief and I wanted to look down at the dragon on my jersey and do it proud. Every race I went out there and did it, and the nation has been behind me. The Commonwealth Games is so special, and I can’t believe I get to stand on the top step, and I feel like I’m in an absolute fairytale.”

The gold rush began on the opening day at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, as the Welsh trio of Finucane, Lowri Thomas and Rhian Edmunds defeated their teammates-turned-rivals in England (Rhianna Parris-Smith, Sophie Capewell, Katy Marchant) in the team sprint. The trio broke the Commonwealth Games record twice in qualifying and then the final, topping out at 46.760s.