“The Common-what games?” This is the response I got from a bunch of ten-year-olds a couple of days ago when I asked if they were excited about seeing Australia’s best athletes competing on the Gold Coast for the next two weeks. Their confusion was genuine.
I was initially quite surprised by this group of kids claiming to have never heard of the Commonwealth Games. I remember how excited I was as a youngster watching the 2006 Melbourne games as Anna Meares blitzed her rival Victoria Pendleton in the women’s 500m time trial.
I was in amazement as the late Kerryn McCann battled exhaustion to finish in the women’s marathon. These felt like significant moments in my young life, as what I witnessed developed my understanding that Australia was a sporting nation, a nation that achieved sporting success.
It is noticeable that that interest in the Commonwealth Games has dwindled away considerably since then. It was once an important link between the nations of the British Empire, one which united and displayed the strength of a global domain.
But the world of sport is a continually growing and expanding economically. The Games represents just another international event in the global sporting landscape.
This is the fundamental problem that grips event like the Commonwealth Games. In an already oversaturated sports market, the Games struggle to gain media oxygen.
As these Games begin, they have already been dwarfed by Australian cricket’s ball-tampering scandal. This while the AFL and NRL take up 90 per cent of space on the back pages, and the US Masters, one of the most prestigious sports events in the world, also begins over the weekend.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
It’s a battle for the Games to grab attention regardless of when or where they are held. The current irrelevance of the games mirrors that of former world empire.
Coincidently, as the Commonwealth Games have declined, we have reached a critical juncture in Australia’s sporting history. Simply, we too just aren’t that good anymore.
In 2014, England won nine more gold medals in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games than Australia. The Mother Country performed significantly better than us in both the London and Rio Olympics. ‘The Missile’ misfired, the Kookaburras stopped laughing, while those on the velodrome found more punctures than medals.
Heaven forbid, we are now a cricket nation of bad losers and cheats!
Our identity as a sporting nation is under serious threat.
Now, these Games no one knew or cared about suddenly matter. What if we can no longer keep up with the international sporting heavyweights?
It is clear that Australia’s time as overachievers on the international sporting stage is finished. Just like in international politics, we have been sent to the bench.
We can feign our international importance as much as we like, but we aren’t fooling anyone. In the end, we’re just that sideshow that will cozy up to the first-team players like the United States, China and Great Britain, hoping that sometimes they mention plucky old Australia.
We need these Commonwealth Games more than ever as it is our chance to reclaim our position as a proud sporting nation. Bring back the Aussie underdog who overachieves against all odds.
What is the national image of Australia without sport? I’m too scared to look.
BigJ
Roar Guru
The problem is that the Commonwealth games are and will always be the minor league of world sports, USA, China and Russia aren’t in so there is most of the decent competition gone. Plus this countries dwindling interest in being apart of the Commonwealth does not help. If Turnbull has his way we would become a Republic tomorrow. But the biggest factor is as stated in the article is that the athletes aren’t as good as they were use to be. The Campbell or should I say choker sisters are the perfect example. In Beijing we did well but in London we were embarrassed out of the olympics as the athletes we too busy on Facebook with their stupid Shelfies instead of focusing on the task at hand. Rio was even worse with poor medal hall in decades. In short no one wants to watch a second tier team lose . It’s like watching the Central Queensland Capras play in the Instrust Super Cup no one cares
Leonard
Guest
It's long been fashionable among a certain clique of poseurs and Pommyphobes to sneer at the Commonwealth Games largely for what they are not. One suspects that these miseryguts losers would not win the 100m on land or in water if they started on 99. A fellow teacher of senior English once whined at the end of a school year about having Macbeth on the Yr 11 list again next year, and that she was bored with it after so many years, and therefore it should be delisted. Luckily I came up with the perfect squelch:'You might be bored, but for your next class it will be an entirely new experience - why should they miss out?' So, why should hundreds of the world's athletes (including scores of ours) be deprived of this once or twice in a sporting lifetime because of the sneers of a few killjoys pretending to be clever?
Matt H
Roar Guru
I like that fact that we are generally pretty good at a lot of sports, rather than out and out champions at one or two national sports only It means we might not win them but we are always in the finals mix.
Lionheart
Guest
The UK pours many times more money into Sport than we do, and it's all through their Lottery. We're just not in the same financial league as them, to fund our sports teams. But as for world sports, we need to break free from this silly little claim that we are world champions just because we win a few rugby games and dominate a couple of other sports like rugby league & netball, which are scarcely played by a few Commonwealth countries. World sports, like athletics and football is where we find our true world sporting status, not on the AFL park.
BrainsTrust
Guest
It would be a lot better to dump the Commonwealth games given their multi billion dollar costs and put the money into the athletes. England with their billion pound lottery funding have put the money into the athletes and were second in the Olympics talley. Australia spends more on one Commonwealth games than they spend on athletes over a 12 year cycle. Given that Australia will now be spending those billions on the Commonwealth games more frequently as other countries don;t want to host it anymore.
Matt H
Roar Guru
"It is clear that Australia’s time as overachievers on the international sporting stage is finished. Just like in international politics, we have been sent to the bench." Not really, it will just change and evolve. You might be too young to remember but the same thing happened in the 70's, to the point where we did not win a single gold medal at the 1976 Olympics. These things go in cycles. I see the Commonwealth Games as more a community event (the sporting community that is), like the Master Games. Sure it's not always the best depth of competition, but you do get to see some of the world's best and there is also a chance for competitors from tiny nations to perform on a big stage.
peeeko
Roar Guru
some crazy statements here "Now, these Games no one knew or cared about suddenly matter. What if we can no longer keep up with the international sporting heavyweights?" the commonwealth games is hardly sporting heavyweights "We need these Commonwealth Games more than ever as it is our chance to reclaim our position as a proud sporting nation" we need the Cg more than ever? really? beating England and Canada in a few sports that we rarely watch is important? "What is the national image of Australia without sport? I’m too scared to look." we are a lot more than just a nation of sports and our sport isnt going anywhere if our pride is built upon the relative strength compared to former British Empire nations of cyclists, swimmers, weightlifters and shooters then we do have a problem Worlds biggest sporting event is on in 2 months and we have a seat at the table