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Winning Students 100 athletes hit the world stage

The first athletes from Scotland’s national sport scholarship programme, Winning Students 100, have been announced among squads for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games and the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Among the 2025-26 cohort to be named on 2026 squads so far are Chris McCormick, Neil Simpson, Mark Stewart, Angharad Evans and Megan Keith, while an impressive number of alumni athletes will also take to the world stage in the coming weeks and months.

Freestyle skier Chris McCormick, who trained at Bearsden Ski Club in Glasgow as a youth and is now a student at the Open University in Scotland, will represent Team GB in Cortina at the Winter Olympics, which officially open today.

In a post on social media, Chris said he was, “Very proud to have been selected to Team GB for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy”, going on to share that it “feels like an insane journey from the dryslope to here and would like to thank anyone who has helped me in any form over the years. I’ll go out and give it my best for you.”

Next month, University of Aberdeen skier Neil Simpson will showcase his talents at the Paralympic Games. Neil competes in the AS3 class for visually impaired skiers and already has a gold medal to his name in the Super-G from Beijing 2022.

Chris and Neil join an impressive roll of honour of Winning Students 100 alumni with a history competing at Winter and Paralympic Games.

It includes figure skater Luke Digby, who was a student at the Open University in Scotland, Winning Students 100 alumni Scott Meenagh, who will make his third and final Winter Paralympics appearance in biathlon in March, and two-time Olympic alpine ski racer Charlie Guest, who will be in Italy for this year’s events broadcasting with TNT Sports.

While no less than eight competitors in past and present curling and wheelchair curling events have come through the Winning Students programme in previous years. They are Bruce Mouat, Bobby Lammie, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson, Grant Hardie, Hugh Nibloe, Kyle Waddell and Jennifer Dodds.

Looking ahead to the summer, University of Strathclyde student Mark Stewart is one of the first 2025-26 Winning Students 100 scholars to be selected for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, in what will be his remarkable fourth Commonwealth Games appearance.

The cyclist will represent Scotland after a standout performance at the recent UCI Track Cycling World Championships, 12 years on from making his Commonwealth Games debut on home soil at Glasgow 2014.

Elsewhere, University of Stirling swimmer Angharad Evans and University of Edinburgh athletics star Megan Keith have also joined Team Scotland for this year’s Commonwealth Games. Breakstroke Olympian Angharad has her eyes set on making waves in the Glasgow pool this summer, while Megan looks set to impress on the track.

Cathy Gallagher, Chair, Winning Students 100 Advisory Board said: "Winning Students 100 is immensely proud to see our scholars, both past and present, getting call ups for major Games, marking an inspiring start to the year. Each of these athletes exemplify the dedication and talent that this programme was designed to support and we can’t wait to see how they perform on the world stage. No doubt they are the first of many of our supported scholars who have their sights on big things in 2026. We wish them the very best of luck.”

Winning Students 100 is Scotland's national sports scholarship programme, supporting talented student-athletes by helping them balance their studies with high-performance training and competition.

Funded by the Scottish Funding Council and sportscotland, the programme provides grants and works with colleges and universities to offer academic flexibility.