Expand your thinking on Comm Games
champion and it’s a big fu--ing deal.’’
Too fu--ing right. Anyway, as much as punters with a Twitter account think they can change the world, none of the athletes cared two licks by the time the closing ceremony kicked into life with the voices of Amy Shark and Archie Roach.
They came, competed, finished first, last or somewhere in between and loved every minute of it. There were stories to behold and none should be diminished (shout out to Emily Seebohm). Few were better than Kurt Fearnley, the great para athlete chosen to carry the flag in his final Games.
People regularly point out that the Games of the Commonwealth aren’t the Olympics. Sometimes, that’s a very good thing. To see Fearnley pump his arms like pistons on a locomotive in prime time, to hear him talk with such vigour about improving the lives of people with a disability, was something to truly behold.
And really, they were the kind moments that will be frozen in time from the Gold Coast, which did just fine hosting the Games. It mostly ran like clockwork and as per tradition, some African athletes simply ran, still to be located.
This was sport, after all, and sport that mattered, so for every celebration there was an equivalent heartache. English cyclist Melissa Lowther was to compete in the time trial, only to find officials had not entered her in the race.
And on the final day, the harrowing vision of Scottish marathon runner Callum Hawkins collapsing just 2km from the finish was difficult and confronting. With medicos slow to reach him, he melted into the hot bitumen, unable to rise. Some fans stood and took photos of his plight.
Yet overwhelmingly it was good and wholesome and exactly what we needed as a sporting nation that had so recently stood accused of disappearing up our own backsides in the relentless pursuit of victory at any cost.
The closing ceremony continued the themes of reconciliation and connection to the indigenous past that seemed to scare jittery middle class white people when the Games opened. The lack of footage of athletes entering the stadium, especially Fearnley with the flag, went down poorly with viewers, as did the musical line-up. But hey, you want it on budget, you don’t get AC/DC.
A long way from Burleigh Heads, 2020 host city Birmingham wants its Games to revolve around an old city with a young, vibrant population. Rapper Lady Sanity provided part of the soundtrack, although not everything needed to be so new and fresh; Jeff Lynne’s ELO would contribute Mr Blue Sky to a scene.
The city also has Black Sabbath and Duran Duran up its sleeve to open its Games in four years. Over to you, Brummies. We expect big things.