Sunshine Games earn a new place in the sporting world
Despite a misjudged closing ceremony, 2018 succeeded in bringing diverse people together
It was perhaps apt that these invigorating, sun-andsandals Commonwealth Games resolved themselves in the image of Usain Bolt hitting the decks with a gyrating blue koala. Even when not competing, the greatest sprinter of all, who has spent most of his week on the Gold Coast touring Broadbeach nightclubs, was somehow a fitting emblem for 11 days that have re-energised a post-colonial curiosity with a burst of Australian vigour.
There was relief that Bolt stuck around, because otherwise this was a closing ceremony that collapsed under its own artifice. Usually, such affairs can be forgiven for a shaggy-dog charm, where hundreds of exhausted, slightly sunburnt athletes toss away their training plans and dance. Only this time, Gold Coast 2018 decided to dispense with the sport altogether, cutting out any parade or mention of the flagbearers in favour of a third-rate pop concert, headlined by a Kylie Minogue impersonator.
Remarkably, even Channel Seven, the Games rights-holders here, gave the spectacle a full five-minute savaging. Presenter Johanna Griggs, a former Commonwealth medallist, was outraged that wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley, Australia’s flagbearer, had been excised from the show. “I’m furious,” she said. “He should have been able to hear the roar of the stadium. To have a couple of photos with his family and then have the flag taken away? It’s so wrong.” Her sidekick, Basil Zempilas, argued: “The hosts just didn’t get it right. It was a mistake not to include the athletes. The speeches were also way too long – and, dare I say it, self-indulgent.”
The segment showcasing Birmingham, where the Games flag arrives for 2022, was hardly an editing masterpiece. Knowing that Britain’s second city would suffer by aesthetic comparison to the Gold Coast, organisers still used as their signature image in a video montage an overhead shot of Spaghetti Junction.
The rest of the performance in Queensland was deftly choreographed. While the host city, a burgeoning resort of more than a million people, has a seamier side, it has offered telegenic tableaux galore. The state mantra – “beautiful one day, perfect the next” – is not without merit. The 396-strong band of England athletes proved slow to acclimatise. The Brownlee brothers were stragglers, Andrew Pozzi clattered into the hurdles, and even Adam Peaty was beaten in the pool for the first time in four years. And yet the team could scarcely have scripted a more rousing denouement, as England’s netball side overturned Australia in a stunning upset that could be a catalyst for women’s sport.
Riches have been scattered evenly among the home nations, with Scotland toasting a diving gold for James Heatly, his nation’s first diving champion since his late grandfather 60 years ago, and Northern Ireland saw teenage gymnast Rhys Mcclenaghan humble Olympic champion Max Whitlock on the pommel horse.
But the magic dust of the Commonwealths has, ultimately, almost nothing to do with the medal count.
It resides instead in the eclectic smorgasbord of human stories, from the married couples who created a lawn bowls team on the island of Niue, to Canada’s Robert Pitcairn, not merely the oldest athlete at 79, but an ex-pilot who once saved the lives of 130 people
The magic of the Commonwealths resides in the eclectic mix of human stories
when his plane was hijacked. Just a few months ago, the long-term future of the Games was in peril, with Birmingham only chosen for 2022 after original hosts Durban were stripped of the rights amid financial troubles. But the Gold Coast has helped restore them to relevance and kudos. The persistent emphasis on “inclusion”, a key plank of the Games credo, has not been mere idle rhetoric: there has, for the first time, been an equal number of medal chances for men and women, while para-athletes have been integrated into the programme.
The outlook, according to David Grevemberg, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, is that the sport should be wedded to a social conscience. In that case, he might care to listen to Tom Daley, who has stressed that while he is able to compete openly as a gay man in Australia, the Commonwealth still comprises countries such as Uganda, where homosexuality is punishable by prison terms or worse. To prosper, the Games must be recognised not as a relic of imperialism, but as a platform for progressive thought.
To that end, at least, the Gold Coast has shown the way.