Leading into the Commonwealth Games currently taking place in the Gold Coast on Australia’s East coast there was much speculation as to the future of the Games beyond 2022 when Birmingham in England will be the host nation.
The Commonwealth Games as they are known now started in 1930 as the British Empire Games and Hamilton in Canada were the first hosts. At that time travel was much harder and so there were only 400 competitors from 11 nations competing in 59 events. Appropriately Canadian triple jumper Gordon Smallacombe won the first ever gold medal in the history of the Games.
The current Games are the 21st edition, and more than 6600 athletes from 71 countries. In 2018 there will be 275 events in 19 sports. So the event has clearly grown. It has also become a far greater event than when it started in terms of television coverage and media coverage in general.
Yet it is the relevance of the Games that is now being called into question.
The Commonwealth today is an intergovernmental organisation of 53 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire. The Commonwealth dates back to the mid-20th century. However since those days there has been a decolonisation of the British Empire leading to increased self-governance of its territories. Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, and while there are over 31 republics and five monarchies who have a different monarch, the Queen remains the ceremonial head of state and reigning constitutional monarch of only 16 members of the Commonwealth, known as Commonwealth realms.
Her Majesty is the lynchpin holding it all together. She is now 91 years of age and has been on the throne for 65 years, and is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch as well as the world’s longest-reigning queen regent and female head of state. Many feel that when her reign comes to an end that will bring to an end the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Games.
Time will tell on this front, but the big question in sporting terms is whether the Games are relevant any more. They will rate highly in some areas from a television perspective simply because this will be some nations only chance to medal at a major event, as the World Championships and Olympics will be beyond them or their athletes.
Sadly some sections of the media today still see the Commonwealth Games as a guide to an athlete or team’s chances of medalling at an Olympic Games. Yet the recent Rio Olympic Games boast 11,000 athletes from 206 nations competing in 306 events in 42 sporting disciplines.
All three medallists in the Men’s 100m and 200m Athletics finals in Glasgow in 2014 failed to make the Olympic final two years later. Usain Bolt did not compete in Glasgow, and Great Britain’s Adam Gemili won silver in the 100m in Glasgow and made the final of the 200m in Rio.
In fact with no Mo Farah in Glasgow in the men’s athletics only one athlete and one relay team repeated their Commonwealth Games Gold win by winning an Olympic Gold. Canada’s Derek Drouin in the High Jump and Jamaica in the 100m relay. However in the 800m Kenya’s David Rudisha went from silver in Glasgow to Gold in Rio, as did South Africa’s Wade van Niekerk in the 400m.
In the Women’s athletics there were again many big names missing in Glasgow and only one athlete who won gold managed to go on and win Gold in Rio and that was Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon in the 1500m.
In Boxing only Englishman Joseph Joyce who won Gold in Glasgow managed to contest a final in Rio where he had to settle for silver losing the Super heavyweight final to France’s Tony Yoka.
In the Women’s boxing Nicola Adams of England was the only boxer who medalled in Glasgow to contest a final in Rio, and just as she had done in the London Olympics and in Glasgow won Gold in the flyweight division.
In Track Cycling Australia were dominant in Glasgow but it was Great Britain who were dominant in Rio. Australia won 7 gold in Glasgow in the men’s and women’s events. It was Great Britain who won 6 Gold medals and Australia won one silver and one bronze.
In Diving in the men’s competition Jack Laugher from England won Gold in Glasgow in the 3m Springboard and silver in Rio. He won another Gold in Rio with the man he won gold with in Glasgow in the synchronised 3m Springboard, Chris Mears.
In Women’s diving Australia’s Madison Keeney and Annabelle Smith won bronze in Glasgow in the synchronised 3m springboard and they did superbly to repeat that feat in Rio.
In the hockey in Glasgow Australia won Gold in both the men’s and women’s competition, yet in Rio neither side finished on the podium. England who won Bronze in the women’s event became Great Britain and went on to win Gold in Brazil.
In Gymnastics only one athlete that won Gold in Glasgow went on to Olympic Gold two years later, and that was England’s Max Whitlock. He doubled up winning repeating his Gold medal win in the Men’s Floor exercise and went one better than Glasgow where he won silver on the Pommel horse to claiming Gold in Rio.
In Rugby Sevens the women’s event was not contested in Glasgow. Yet the Gold medallists South Africa had to settle for bronze in Rio, while silver and bronze medallists at the Commonwealth Games, New Zealand and Australia failed to medal in Rio.
When it came to shooting, in the men’s double trap in Glasgow Steven Scott won gold and he claimed bronze in Rio. In the Women’s trap Catherine Skinner won Gold for Australia in Rio having been eliminated in the semi finals in Glasgow.
In the pool not one Men’s Gold medal winner at the Commonwealth Games won Gold in Rio. Singapore’s Joseph Schooling who famously won Gold in the 100m Butterfly only managed silver in Glasgow. The man who beat him there Chad le Clos from South Africa sharing silver with Michael Phelps from the USA and Lazlo Cseh of Hungary. It was a similar story for the women with only the Australian 100m freestyle relay team claiming Gold at both Games.
Finally in Triathlon the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan took Gold and silver respectively in both events. A South African was third both times, Richard Murray in Glasgow and Henri Schoeman in Rio. In the women’s event England’s Vicky Holland won bronze at both Games.
So as you can see not too many managed to replicate their Commonwealth Games success at the Olympic Games. So no longer is it a precursor for Olympic or World Championship success. Truly global events have now taken on more importance as these test the athletes and give them a real perspective as to where they stand in the world.
However if one looks back over the previous games in various decades the number of athletes who achieved a Gold at a Commonwealth Games and an Olympic Games was still low. What appear to have been higher however was their likelihood to win an Olympic medal.
Yet is it fair to compare today’s athletes to those of yesteryear? Up until the late 1980’s and early 1990’s many of the athletes then were true amateurs, whereas today nearly all are full time professionals. There is more money in sport, there is more sophistication in terms of equipment, dietary knowledge, as well as training regimes. So the competition is far more even today than it was at times in years gone by.
Frequently there is the argument to preserve history and there will be plenty who feel that the Commonwealth Games have been a major part of sporting history for close on the last 100 years and so they must continue. However with realistically only four Commonwealth nations in a position to host the games one has to fear for their future.
Can those at the helm maintain interest from the public and more crucially broadcasters for another 12 years to enable the games to reach 100 years. Birmingham is locked in for 2022, but who will raise their hand to host in 2026? Should the curtain come down in 2030 in Hamilton Canada? That is if interest can be sustained for another twelve years.
