Experience has helped take the weight off Hannah Crymble’s shoulders as she aims to lift Commonwealth gold in Glasgow

Hannah Crymble approaches these Commonwealth Games as an experienced, accomplished athlete, one with a very strong chance of winning a medal. It is fair to say, however, that wasn’t the case four years ago.

‘When I try to think back to Birmingham, I feel like I almost accidentally qualified for those Games,’ she admits with self-deprecating candour. ‘This time around, I’ve had to really work and earn my spot on the team. I’m a much more confident and relaxed competitor now compared to four years ago as well.’

Crymble was a relatively new presence on the international weightlifting scene in 2022, a former gymnast who had found her way to this new discipline via CrossFit. Despite her relative inexperience, the Northern Irish competitor still finished sixth in the 59kg class, an achievement that hinted at the potential that would unfold over the next four years.

A potent mix of commitment, coaching and an insatiable desire to get better has helped her fulfil that promise, the 30-year-old winning the Ulster Open and British championships last year, while also finishing a creditable 21st at the world championships.

‘Birmingham was my second ever international competition so I have a lot more experience behind me now,’ she reveals. ‘I’ve competed a lot more internationally with Team Ireland in the four years between the two Games. Weightlifting is an individual sport but it also takes an absolute village to get every single one of us onto that platform; your coaches, your friends, your family, physios — everybody plays a role to get you to the competitions.’

With greater experience, however, comes increased expectation. Crymble will be among the favourites to medal in the 63kg category at Glasgow 2026 and she has taken steps to deal with that.

‘During the qualification period I started to put too much pressure and expectation on myself,’ she admits. ‘So I’ve been working very hard with my sports psychologist and we’ve got to this point now where I’m enjoying competing again. I’m feeling the confidence and excitement to get on the platform, rather than this heavy expectation of numbers that I need to be hitting.

‘There’s a lot going on at these competitions so we’ve just got different techniques that just help me ground myself and bring my focus back to me and not everything else around me. It also reminds me I’m here to have fun.

‘I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t enjoy it. And that just keeps me relaxed and focused on what the main goals are.’

Battling against gender stereotypes is another ongoing fight. Crymble has heard it all before about how lifting weights is a man’s sport, that hoary old cliché bringing together the females on the circuit in a unified show of strength.

‘Being strong and weightlifting is such a cool thing for females to do,’ she adds proudly. ‘We have a lot of younger female lifters coming through the system now in Northern Ireland. And I just love being able to encourage them and show them the opportunities that are there for them as they progress and get older.

‘I never would have seen myself as a role model or a leader within weightlifting in Northern Ireland, but a lot of people are starting to kind of bring that up now. So I guess I am just starting to step into that leadership role within weightlifting, which is kind of cool.’

Crymble is juggling all of this alongside her day job as a nurse in the cancer centre at Belfast City Hospital. It is, understandably, a demanding role both physically and emotionally and she is grateful that funding has allowed her to reduce her hours to get in the best shape to compete in Glasgow.

‘I was working full-time and then I was lucky enough to get Athlete Award funding, which is funded by the National Lottery, and that’s allowed me to reduce my hours.

‘When I’m working it’s 13-hour shifts so I can’t train before or after work, it’s just not feasible. I would be working sometimes four days a week so that was only giving me three days a week to train and do everything else.

‘I was knackered and maybe carrying some emotional stress from work and it was running me into the ground. I was really burning the candle at both ends. So, I now work part-time — two days a week — temporarily during the run-up to the Games which has been a massive help.

‘But I love my job. I love being able to look after my patients and make their hard days just that little bit easier. It doesn’t need to be massive things. Just wee tiny little acts of kindness can just make such a big difference to them. And I think there’s a few of the patients who are quite excited to see me competing on TV.’

Thanks to National Lottery players, more than £33million is raised every week for good causes. It’s because of you sport, arts, heritage and community projects, as well as our athletes competing at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, are supported across the UK.

Because of National Lottery players, vital investment reaches every corner of sport, from grassroots clubs to elite programmes. It funds the coaches, the science, the facilities, and the athlete development pathways, that have got the home nation teams to the start line.