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Most athletes take a bit of time after retirement to figure out what comes next, but Britain’s most decorated Paralympian, Dame Sarah Storey, is already flinging herself into her next role. The 19-time Paralympic champion has hung up her wheels but certainly not put her feet up; two weeks on from announcing her retirement she is back in a different sort of office as a presenter, pundit and co-commentator for TNT Sports’ coverage of the Commonwealth Games.

Storey speaks to The Independent a few days out from the start of the 2026 edition, held in Glasgow 12 years on from the last time it hosted the event. “Glasgow always puts on a fantastic show,” she says. “There’s going to be some incredible performances.”

Storey first competed in the Commonwealth Games back in 2002, when they were held in her native Manchester. At the time she was a swimmer and had already won five Paralympic golds and a further eight medals; that tally would rise to 16 before she quit the sport and turned to cycling, which was to prove an even greater success.

That Games in Manchester remains a fond memory. “It's very difficult to surpass competing in your home city,” the 48-year-old smiles, recalling some surprising benefits – she was able to go home to Eccles on the tram and do her laundry, rather than jostling with others to access the launderette in the athletes’ village.

“To just wander into the city after training one day, and when I wasn't competing, it was just so amazing to see that buzz and people from all around the Commonwealth there to watch. It was a beautiful summer until the closing ceremony, I think, when it absolutely chucked it down. So to see Manchester in its sunshine and glory was just a really special time.”

The Commonwealth Games have changed enormously during her time competing, from pan-classification events in the early days to ever-more classifications offering more athletes the chance to compete. In the 2010 edition, held in Delhi, she became the first para-cyclist to compete for England in the same competition against able-bodied cyclists, but there was no specific para-cycling team.

It’s a reminder of how far the Games have come, and how far there still is to go. She says: “I was on the Team England team alongside Laura Kenny, Emma Pooley, and that was an incredible opportunity, but no para-athletes were in Delhi. So for me to see all of the opportunity that's provided now for the para-athletes is very exciting.”

The 30-time Paralympic medallist will be part of TNT Sports’ punditry team for the Games (Getty)

The Commonwealth Games have led the way for para-sport in multi-sport events, with medal tables and athletes on each country’s team integrated with their counterparts competing in able-bodied sport since 2002. Storey believes the Commonwealths can serve as a blueprint for other major championships: “It's definitely possible to do more integration across all of the different events. Athletes from both sides of the programme all train together and consider themselves to be one big team.

“It's not possible at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but let's make it possible at those World Championships in between, because that will drive the opportunities for para-sport to be more visible and it will certainly help with some of the challenges that we face.”

Storey is keen to stress that TNT’s coverage will afford equal importance to para- and able-bodied events, with the same punditry teams. “[Viewers are] not going to notice there's a difference. The only difference will be that we'll have a classification name: C5 in cycling was my classification, so we might say the women's C5 individual pursuits, and then we might say the women's individual pursuits. Other than that we're just going to be covering great athletes, great sport, and incredible performances.”

The stripped-back nature of this year’s event has been much discussed, with only 10 sports rather than the 17 offered in Birmingham 2022, and it has been well-documented how Glasgow stepped in late to rescue the event after the original host, Victoria, pulled out, citing out-of-control costs. Storey is confident that won’t disadvantage the actual sport on offer. “Fewer sports, but I think that the field size won't feel as though it's smaller because the finals will be full. You're not going to have six lanes of swimmers instead of eight.

The Commonwealth Games begin with an opening ceremony on Thursday (Getty)

“We're obviously going to miss sports like road cycling and those sports that aren't in there, but I think it was really important for the Games to be continued, and to perhaps remodel itself in a different way. In making it slightly smaller it provided that opportunity to integrate more para-athletes within the programme, and so it just starts a new era for the Commonwealth Games.

“We need to make it relevant again in ways that [make sure] it's not going to be overly costly [and] it's going to fit the narrative between the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Which really brings us to the big question: how can we keep the Commonwealth Games relevant, with fewer countries interested in hosting and many top athletes eschewing it for other major championships?

Storey is confident there is still a place for it in the calendar. “From a sports perspective, the relevance is really obvious. Being able to provide a multi-sport environment to as many sports as possible in the interim between the Olympic and Paralympic Games years provides so many great opportunities.

The Games are back in Glasgow, which last hosted in 2014 (PA Wire)

“It also gives us the opportunity to showcase the athletes who would be outside selection for an Olympic and Paralympic Games. We get four teams [as home nations] instead of just one, and that provides more athletes with that chance to break through into an international team, and that could be the stepping stone that they need in order to make it a break through into the Olympic or Paralympic team in two years' time.

“I think that's where we just have to marry that up with the history of the Commonwealth Games and the celebration of the Commonwealth as a global organisation and make sure that we bring together all that. There's always an opportunity to have great rivalry when the Australians and the New Zealanders are there and the Canadians, and so bringing that out a little bit more, and sharing it across both para- and non-para-sports is going to be something that will certainly enable it to be more sustainable in the future.”

Watch every event of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games exclusively live on TNT Sports and all HBO Max plans in UK \& Ireland.