​Aled Sion Davies feels as though he has opened Pandora’s Box before what could be his final Commonwealth Games with Wales. The dual-sport athlete, 35, is competing in the F42-44/F61-64 discus throw at this summer’s Games in Glasgow, returning to the sport he now regards as a hobby. The three-time Paralympic gold medallist has hardly touched a discus since he won Commonwealth gold in 2022, with shot put still his priority. A move to Australia after undergoing surgery to combat osteitis pubis—a condition that causes inflammation around the groin—has renewed his passion for discus. “That has changed everything for me; it gave me that belief again,” Davies told BBC Sport. “The new group is a breath of fresh air and has given me something to chase again.” He says that having the operation, changing his coach, and making his body as efficient as possible has been the biggest learning curve. “I feel like I’ve opened Pandora’s Box in terms of throwing.”
Team Wales has appointed Breen as captain for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Davies spent a year out of action after surgery and came back to win his seventh consecutive F63 shot put title at the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships. Now training with renowned throwing coach Dale Stevenson in Adelaide, the Welshman is more focused on preserving his body after pushing through the pain barrier at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. “I wanted to explore every option because I didn’t feel like a student in the relationship anymore. To move away has been really refreshing,” he said.
“I thought I might have left it a little too late in my career, but where science and medicine have evolved, I’ve realised there’s a lot left to squeeze out of the lemon.” Davies remains disappointed with his shot put silver in 2024, and he says that result convinced him he needed to take action to keep pace with Kuwait’s Faisal Sorour. “Losing on someone else’s terms wasn’t nice. It wasn’t because he was better; it was because I was broken,” Davies reflected. “I look back now, and I was almost like a big wooden door, spinning around in a circle.”
Davies (left) is set for his third Commonwealth Games. Despite his world number one ranking, he says he has relinquished his own expectations but understands that the public will be anticipating another gold. Doing that has been made more difficult by a change in his throwing pattern, and he will need to avoid returning to his old tricks. “People are expecting me to go in there and defend the gold medal, but I really don’t know,” he admitted when asked what version of himself Scotland will see. “Because I’ve changed so much technically, I’m caught between two movement patterns. I’ve been given a new graph with a higher trajectory, but I need to stop going back to the old favourites because it’s bringing my ceiling down.”