Sadie ecstatic with Commonwealth Games gold

Christian Sadie produced a stunning performance to smash the Commonwealth Games record in the men's 50m Freestyle S7 at Glasgow 2026.

His remarkable swim not only secured Commonwealth gold but also broke the games record with a smashing time of 28.06 at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre on July 29.

The title was previously held by Australia's Matthew Levy with a time of 28.60 set at Australia's Gold Coast in 2018.

He started swimming competitively in 2015 for Stellenbosch University and in 2017 competed at his first international competition which was the World Para Swimming Championships held in Mexico earning himself three silver medals.

Since then he has taken part at the 2018 Commonwealth Games where he received a silver and at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.

“The atmosphere in the stadium after the Commonwealth Games is usually quite big. We were in Glasgow and the UK is quite well known for its swimming so I think most the seats were filled,” Sadie said. “The stadium is quite compact in terms of the number of people to the amount of space, so it was quite loud and quite enjoyable.

“I think stepping in front of a massive amount of people really creates an awesome atmosphere and aura in the stadium that you can either use to your advantage or not,” Sadie said. “We planned on doing not a practice race but a prep race for the 50 freestyle so we did the 100 backstroke....so that I'd sort of get an understanding of what that type of atmosphere was and yeah, I enjoyed it quite a lot.”

That preparation paid off in a big way when it came time for his main event, the S7 50-metre freestyle. Sadie exceeded all expectations by dropping significant time off his personal best in both the heat and the final.

“In terms of my happiness for the 50meter freestyle, I wasn't expecting such an amazing race... I dropped 0.3 in the morning and another 0.3 off the new PB in the evening, so in total dropping nearly 0.7, which I didn't expect," he said. “In terms of being happy with the race, I still can't believe the performance that happened.”

Photo: Anton Geyser/TeamSA