Star power lacking as Games set to start
OPINION: The Gold Coast is renowned for sun, but it’s the stars that are currently missing at the Commonwealth Games.
The 2018 Games may suffer from a serious lack of superstar pulling power, with a notable lack of household sporting names competing. Not only that, but some of the world’s best that aren’t immediately recognisable but still capable of world-class feats are noshows.
Supply of sporting superstars at a major event like the Games is obviously limited when the field is confined to the Commonwealth. But past Games have still had major selling points based around huge drawcards.
At Glasgow four years ago, Usain Bolt ensured the Games received the attention its organisers desperately sought, boosting ticket sales and profile despite just competing in the relays. Sir Bradley Wiggins helped the lustre of the 2012 London Olympics carry over to Scotland, while Kenyan 800m phenomenon David Rudisha lived up to his billing as a track highlight.
But Bolt has hung up his golden shoes, Wiggins - like New Zealand’s Hamish Bond in reverse wants to row at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Rudisha now finds the cash lure of Diamond League meets more appealing than the Games; partly because the 2018 Games has been moved substantially forward in the sporting calendar.
Canada’s Andre de Grasse could have assumed a lesser Bolt mantle in the sprints at the Gold Coast but the timing also convinced him to sit out, robbing the Games of the silver medallist in the 200m and bronze medallist in the 100m at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
South Africa’s Olympic gold medallist and 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk was ruled out last year when he seriously injured a knee in a celebrity touch rugby match ahead of an All Blacks test against the Springboks.
So who does that leave to draw the crowds to this surfer’s paradise?
Chiefly, women athletes. While the blokes have pulled the plug, the Gold Coast Games will boast the likes of Jamaican sprinting sensation Elaine Thompson, South African middledistance supremo Caster Semenya, Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak and New Zealand’s Dame Valerie Adams.
Thompson has yet to declare whether she’ll race both the 100m and 200m, but will shine in whatever event she competes in - she won gold in both at Rio and is one of the fastest women in history.
Semenya, the current Olympic 800m champion, should win gold over that distance and in the 1500m also should she choose to double up, while Oleksiak became Canada’s darling when she became her country’s youngest Olympic winner as a 16-year-old in Rio while collecting four medals.
There’ll be plenty of eyes on Adams too - the dual Olympic champion is competing just six months after giving birth to her first child.
Superb English breaststroker Adam Peaty, Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake and English diver Tom Daley will also attract attention.
But even the hosts seem to lack the big names to give the Games the sparkle it would have wanted prior to the opening ceremony tonight.
The cover girl on the local paper at the weekend was Ariarne Titmus - she’s predicted to be the country’s new swim star at the open-air venue, with the kid nicknamed ‘‘The Terminator’’ seeking a 200m-400m-800m freestyle treble.
Cate Campbell and Mack Horton may be big names in Australian swimming, but they don’t hold the aura or interest that Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe, Susie O’neill, Stephanie Rice, Kieren Perkins or Liesel Jones had.
It’s now up to those competing to push the event to and above expectations. At present, the bar isn’t set at a dizzying height.