TIME TO BELIEVE
The Commonwealth Games provide a magic sense of opportunity and discovery, plus help to create our world and Olympic champs of the future. It goes beyond just medal success and bragging rights. The Commonwealth Games carries a magic sense of opportunity.
THE Commonwealth Games was the event that ignited my own self-belief as a young athlete and, for sure, it will continue to be a catalyst for Aussie sporting success as we commence this exciting greenand-gold runway towards the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
There’s something special about the Commonwealth Games.
It goes beyond just medal success and bragging rights against our most passionate sporting rivals. The Commonwealth Games carries a magic sense of opportunity and discovery.
At these upcoming Birmingham Games we’ll naturally celebrate champions who stand on the podium, but equally I look forward to seeing those emerging young athletes who take the next steps in their sporting careers.
The Commonwealth Games help to create world and Olympic champions of the future.
It was the pivotal turning point on my own athlete journey more than 30 years ago.
I was 16, and had never even competed against adults before, when I qualified for the Australian Swimming Championships, doubling as trials for the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games. I didn’t think I’d ever be good enough to make an Australian team, let alone be successful internationally.
I still remember the conversation with my coach John Carew. “Why not give it a go, give it your best!” he urged. “Maybe you’ll want to go further in the sport one day and this could be a learning opportunity.”
At those trials, I swam in the same heat as Glen Housman when he broke the
1500m world record, then I scraped through to finish third in the final and qualify for the Commonwealth Games. I was shocked.
“I didn’t realise it then, but it was almost as if I was being towed along in this slipstream of success by just watching, absorbing and following everything my more experienced teammates did. My confidence grew.
At the Commonwealth Games, I watched swimmers like Lisa Curry and Hayley Lewis have enormous success, but also how they handled themselves in the pressure of one of the world’s great multi-sport events. I’d always thought of representative athletes as superhuman, now they were real. My own goals seemed more reachable. When my turn came in the 1500m, I broke the 15-minute barrier for the first time and snared silver.
In the next two years, the conversations with my coach changed, as did my self-confidence and belief.
In Barcelona 1992, I won my first Olympic gold. It had all started with the Commonwealth Games.
I went to three Commonwealth Games and loved every experience. At Kuala Lumpur in 1998, my last, I got to carry the Australian flag in the closing ceremony. It was one of the highlights of my career.
The Commonwealth Games will continue to play an essential role over the next decade, which is shaping as a defining era for Australian sport.
After Birmingham, the Commonwealth Games will return to Australian shores in 2026, in Victoria.
It will be among a throng of world cups and world championships that will be hosted in Australia over the coming years, across sports such as cricket, basketball, cycling, football, rugby, netball and more. This will be our green-and-gold runway to Brisbane 2032.
You can never overstate the incredible experience of competing in your home country, especially in global events. It’s not just the grandstands that are full of green and gold, but also in the streets, shopfronts and communities.
The inspiration is infectious. There will be kids and aspiring athletes who attended the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games who will be dreaming of representing Australia at the 2026 Commonwealth Games. There will be athletes at the 2026 Commonwealth Games who will be relatively unknown, but will emerge to be medal favourites at the 2032 Brisbane Games.
This is the important connection Australian sport needs to nurture, through every level of sport, from grassroots to international representation.
It’s why the Australian Sports Commission, through the Australian Institute of Sport, invests so strongly in our Commonwealth Games athletes and campaigns, through funding, innovation and technology, medicine and sport science, wellbeing and community engagement, coaching and leadership, and high-performance facilities.
To the team representing Australia at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, wear the green and gold with pride, savour the experience and give it your best.
Commonwealth Games Australia has a wonderful theme for these Birmingham Games which sums things up beautifully. Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Brilliant. If I can add one more - Believe.