{"id":770442,"date":"2026-02-17T12:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/770442\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:59:17","slug":"my-first-job-was-glasgow-2014-now-im-helping-run-2026s-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/770442\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;My first job was Glasgow 2014 &#8211; now I&#8217;m helping run 2026&#8217;s Games&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the Commonwealth Games gets underway this July, one man watching will have a feeling of coming full circle.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Spittle was fresh out of university when the sporting event <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/live\/commonwealth-games\/28210365?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:rolled in to Glasgow in 2014;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">rolled in to Glasgow in 2014<\/a>, and took on a short-term role helping with the rugby sevens.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>It was an experience he enjoyed so much that the Fife native decided to re-think his planned career with medicine and focus on working in events instead.<\/p>\n<p>Twelve years later he will be back at the Games, but this time as a project director helping to deliver the entire event to the city.<\/p>\n<p>Sam is hoping that there will be people willing to follow in his footsteps, as organisers behind this year&#8217;s Games push for about 200 roles to be filled in areas like IT, transport, cleaning, security and logistics.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li\/>\n<li\/><\/ul>\n<p>Speaking to the BBC&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sounds\/brand\/m002mp19?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Radio Scotland Breakfast programme;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Radio Scotland Breakfast programme<\/a>, he recalled: &#8220;A graduate job opportunity came up for the 2014 Games, and I was lucky enough to get it &#8211; it was working for a year to deliver the rugby at Ibrox.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My degree had been in physiology and sport science, but I was wowed by the scale of 2014 and how it seemed to take over the city. I got the bug from there and wanted to go on and work in major events.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Sam has worked at a string of massive sporting extravaganzas, including a Rugby World Cup and two Cricket World Cups, as well as the World Expo held in Dubai in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>For Glasgow 2026 he will be director of operations and delivery with specialist events company Trivandi, a partner for the event.<\/p>\n<p>He feels none of this could have happened without his early experiences at Glasgow 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Sam added: &#8220;It was quite daunting, but what I realised was that the people I was working with were willing to wrap their arms around you and bring you in. There&#8217;s so many opportunities around the world in events.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s Games will run from 23 July until 2 August, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cj6nyp4zzzyo?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Glasgow stepped in;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Glasgow stepped in<\/a> following a chaotic period where the Australian state of Victoria pulled out of hosting, citing the cost involved.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cly3yv91595o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:stripped-back programme will present 10 sports at four venues;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">stripped-back programme will present 10 sports at four venues<\/a>, but Sam insisted that it will not seem diluted compared to the 2014 event, widely regarded as a great success.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;There&#8217;s a record-breaking para sports programme, and it&#8217;s still the biggest [event] for track cycling, swimming and 3&#215;3 basketball, so it&#8217;s a reimagined games rather than being scaled down.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Glasgow is an amazing city and a major hosting city for events generally so we are really excited at what&#8217;s to come.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Sam said the recruitment push for this year&#8217;s Commonwealth Games will be focused on getting locals involved.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;One of the key things we are really looking to do is train the next group of events professionals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know not everyone applying will have worked on events, but it&#8217;s a great opportunity to step into a new world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771333157_555_.gif\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Commonwealth Games gets underway this July, one man watching will have a feeling of coming full&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7826],"tags":[225491,748,225492,18527,918,4884,712,111414,16,15],"class_list":["post-770442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glasgow","tag-2014-games","tag-britain","tag-coming-full-circle","tag-commonwealth-games","tag-glasgow","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-sporting-event","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116086097463186303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}