Leah Schlosshan will make her Commonwealth Games debut at the Glasgow 2026 games after being named in England’s 42-person swimming squad.

She will join 27 swimmers and 14 para swimmers at the 23rd edition of the Commonwealth Games, which will see around 3,000 athletes expected to compete across 10 sports.

On being selected for Glasgow 2026, Schlosshan said: “I’m really excited for the summer. It’s my first competition with Swim England, so I’ve never actually represented England as a nation; it’s always been Great Britain, so I’m really excited.”

“I’m also happy it’s in Glasgow because it means a lot of my family can come and all my friends. I think the closest competition I’ve had to home was in Dublin, so it’s nice to have a big major competition actually in the UK, but yes, I was really happy with my performances, and it was always the aim to qualify for the Commonwealth Games this summer.”

The games will see Schlosshan make her major multi-sport competition debut after she missed out on the Paris 2024 Olympics by just 0.12 seconds.

In the time since the Paris games, she has won more than 10 medals, including a gold medal in the Women’s 200m Freestyle at the 2025 Swim England National Winter Championships.

On the Paris games and the time since, Schlosshan said: “When I narrowly missed out at Olympic trials, I suppose that was two years ago now, and if I look back, last year I qualified for worlds, and then this year, obviously, the Commonwealth Games and the Europeans, so I suppose my trajectory has gone up at the moment, which I’m happy about because it’s looking good for 2028.”

“I’ve never been to a ‘games’ before, so I think it’s still a games, but we’re going to be staying in hotels rather than in accommodation, but all the sports are still going to be there. Occasionally you get the opportunity to do junior meets; you can do the Youth Commonwealth Games, or you can do the Youth Olympics, but I never qualified for those, so I haven’t really ever had a ‘games’ experience.”

2025 also saw Schlosshan make her senior World Aquatics Championships debut in Singapore, at which she competed in the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay.

Alongside her Great Britain teammates, Freya Colbert, Freya Anderson, and Abbie Wood, she reached the relay final, where they finished in 5th, while swimming powerhouses Australia and the USA took home 1st and 2nd, respectively.

On what her debut World Championships was like, Schlosshan said: “I think because it was my major senior competition last year, obviously your first competition, I think you’re going to be slightly more nervous, especially because I’ve never competed against Australians or Americans, which are two massive swimming nations, so I think even that was pretty big. I competed in the 4x200 free relay, where Australia has won consecutively by a significant margin and had two world-record swimmers on their team; therefore, I viewed that experience as valuable and can apply it to future competitions.

“The same team will be competing again.” Abbie Wood trains with me here in Manchester. This year, she moved closer to me by training together, and I have also developed a closer relationship with the two Freyas from being on more teams with them; as a result, I feel more comfortable and surrounded by the girls, which has improved our team dynamic. I am really hoping that we can achieve some good races and performances.

She has also continued to impress in the first half of 2026, with her most important performances of the year so far at the 2026 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships securing her place at the Commonwealth Games.

At the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in April, she secured the bronze medal in the women’s 200m race, behind fellow England selectees Freya Colbert and Freya Anderson, where she also recorded a personal best swim.

Regarding her performances at the championships in April, Schlosshan stated: “British Champs is always a really quick meet, and there are always some great, world-class performances there, and obviously it’s really important because it’s a qualifying meet for the summer. " I think every year I have performed well at British Champs; even the year of the Olympic trials, I performed the best that I’d ever performed, and narrowly missing out was way better than what I went into the competition assuming, so every year I feel like I’ve progressed. Maybe there’s more on the line, a tiny bit more pressure because of the competitions I’ve been to in previous years and the results that I’ve got in previous years.”

“But I was really happy with my 200 freestyle; I think, again, it was a personal best, by about .7 or .6 of a second. Obviously, I want to narrow that down even more in the summer because sometimes I feel like it's hard to peak in April because you want to do the best and qualify, but then you need to peak again properly in the summer because that’s when the results actually matter, so I think I came out of British Champs where I was like, 'Yes, I’m satisfied, and I’m happy with those performances,' but I want more, and I think that’s a good position to be in because it means I can aim for more in the summer.”

Alongside her personal best in the 200m freestyle, she also recorded personal bests in the women’s 50m and 100m freestyle races at the 2026 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

In 2026 she has also won a further three bronze medals, all at the 2026 Edinburgh International Swim Meet, as she continues to improve on her times across different races.

On what her previous performances will mean for her summer events, Schlosshan said: “I think I’ve realised more now that the position does matter massively, so like to even be able to swim at commies [the Commonwealth Games] in an individual event, obviously I really want to do the relays, and I'm so excited for them, but I want an individual event to swim as well.”

“So because I came third in the 200 free, I’ll be able to swim that individual event at commies and at Europeans, I think four people can swim for your nation at Europeans, so I’ll definitely do the 200 free there, and then it’s dependent on whether swimmers want to swim it or not because priority goes to the top three, so I may do the 100 free at commies; I’m not sure yet, but if not, I’ll have a busy schedule with the relays and that individual 200 free, but it has made me realise more that the positions matter so much.”

In the summer, Schlosshan will be joining an illustrious list of England swimmers who have won over 400 medals between them at the previous Commonwealth Games.

England will send a strong lineup to the upcoming games in Glasgow, and, with only Australia having won more Commonwealth Games swimming medals, they will be looking to add more medals and historical moments to their tally in Scotland.

On what she’d say to fans thinking of going to the Glasgow games, Schlosshan said: “I’ve always said this, so my sister is on the Scottish team, so she’s going to be competing for Scotland, and I’m on the English team, but I feel like I’ve been in the position where I've been the supporter, and I’ve been the swimmer, so when I was younger, I used to go and watch her at European juniors and British champs, and I absolutely loved it.”

“I feel like it was at a time when I didn’t enjoy swimming myself, because you know when you’re young you kind of focus on other things, but I always loved watching the swimming because I just think it’s great and there’s such a diverse range of events, and every event is different and a lot of fans have their eyes on swimmers, but it’s not always who you expect will win; it can be completely down to the race and down to the touch, so I think it’s a great sport to watch, and it’s really exciting.”

The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games will kick off in just over 50 days, on the 23rd of July, with the closing ceremony taking place on the 2nd of August.

The swimming and para swimming will take place at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, with the sport scheduled to start on Friday 24th July and the final medals to be handed out on Wednesday 29th July.