Nowacki was far from alone in progressing from the Youth Games to Glasgow, but few made the journey with such immediate success. A Commonwealth Sport comparison traced 168 Glasgow 2026 competitors through the four Youth Games held since 2011.

More than half of those identified, 85, had competed at Trinbago 2023, while another 57 had appeared at the Bahamas 2017 Games. Fifteen had competed at Samoa 2015 and 11 at the Isle of Man in 2011.

The figures cover only those four editions and cannot show what part the Youth Games played in each athlete’s development. What they do reveal is the breadth of the pathway. The athletes appeared across the Glasgow programme, represented nations and territories of very different sizes and arrived by markedly different routes.

For Scotland’s Madeleine Silcock, the journey included a change of sport. She competed as a sprinter at the Bahamas 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, but nine years later represented Scotland in Glasgow as a track cyclist. Her career is a reminder that athletes aged 14 to 18 are still developing and that the person who eventually reaches senior international competition may not even do so in the same sport.

For others, the Youth Games sit much further back in careers that have since reached the highest levels of international sport. Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai competed at Samoa 2015 before becoming Olympic champion in the 3,000m steeplechase, while Meg Harris and Lewis Clareburt were part of the Bahamas 2017 generation before establishing themselves among the Commonwealth’s leading swimmers.

Eleven of those identified had competed at the Isle of Man in 2011. Jazmin Sawyers won long jump gold for England there and was also part of the victorious 4x100m relay team. Fifteen years later, she was back on the Commonwealth stage in Glasgow after a senior career that had brought European medals and appearances at the Olympic Games.

Those established names are the easiest examples to recognise, but the comparison revealed a broader reach. Former Youth Games competitors represented Jersey, Guernsey, St Helena, Vanuatu, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Cayman Islands in Glasgow, as well as many of the Commonwealth’s largest teams.

That breadth matters because progression cannot be measured only by the number of Youth Games competitors who become Olympic champions or win senior Commonwealth medals. For athletes from smaller nations and territories, returning at senior level may itself represent years of development and another opportunity to compete internationally.

The next group will begin that journey at Malta 2027, where around 1,150 athletes aged 14 to 18 from the Commonwealth’s 74 nations and territories are expected to compete across eight sports. The Games will also feature the largest Para sport programme in Commonwealth Youth Games history, with Para Swimming making its debut alongside an expanded Para Athletics programme.

No one watching in Malta will know which of those young athletes will appear at a senior Commonwealth Games three, nine or 15 years later, or whether they will return in the same sport. The 168 Glasgow competitors traced through the four most recent Youth Games offer a reason to keep looking beyond the medals won that week.

Nowacki provided the clearest example of where that journey can lead. At 15, he left Trinbago with three Youth Games medals. Three years later, he left Glasgow as a Commonwealth champion and the swimmer who had ended Jersey’s 36-year wait for gold.