There are certain moments where you just remember where you were. Everyone says they remember where they were when 9/11 happened, for instance. I don’t have some major, dramatic trauma like that, but there are certain “where were you?” moments that I’ll never forget.
I remember, for instance, where I was when John Aloisi buried that penalty to put Australia into the World Cup for the first time in my life. I was upstairs with my dad, absolutely losing it. It wasn’t joy, so much, but it was relief that manifested itself in tears for both of us. I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Everyone remembers where they were for John Alosi’s penalty in 2005, but can they remember where they were when someone won gold for Australia at the Commonwealth Games?
I also remember where I was when Peter Bol was running in 800m semi and final. The shots of his family that came out after were just as extraordinary. His run and those shots, for all of my well-earned cynicism about this country, were inspiring and showed what is good about this country.
What do those two examples that I just gave have in common?
They happened on an actual world stage, not a budget Olympics set up as a jewel for a failed empire.
The Commonwealth Games, as far as I can tell, only exist for the once mighty British Empire to show off all of its toys. But now the British empire is somewhere between faded and Rome circa AD 476.
None of this article is to denigrate the athletes that would have competed, of course. Who wouldn’t want the platform that the Commonwealth Games allegedly provide? And they are, of course, extraordinary athletes.
😞 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games – how the world has changed #matilda pic.twitter.com/qxFC84hrwb
— Craig The Speculator (@craigspeculator) July 18, 2023
Before there was the Matildas, there was Matilda the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane
It is to denigrate the existence of the competition and to note the increasing irrelevance of it.
Let’s go back to the scenes when regional Victoria won the bid for the Games in 2022. It was like a rat pissed on cotton. Truly, and I mean this, nobody gave a stuff. I was at work when the announcement came down and the prevailing thought was: “wait…did we have the Commonwealth games?”
As more details have begun to trickle out about the mismanagement of the situation by the Victorian government (have they tried putting the events in hotels?), the reaction has largely turned to derision. I guarantee that if this same thing happened with the Women’s World Cup, or an international event of some actual significance that Australia could bribe enough to win, apathy and derision would not be the prevailing sentiments by one of the most sports obsessed states on the planet.
Indeed, that Victoria presumably didn’t have to bribe anybody to win the games is proof enough of their irrelevance.
In fact, in recent times, it’s becoming clear that the Commonwealth Games is becoming apathetic about itself. Since the 2006 Melbourne games, they have been held in Delhi, Glasgow, the Gold Coast and Birmingham. The 2022 games were going to be based in Geelong. Since Delhi, it’s been a secondary or tertiary city roadshow.
The fact that any major event was held in Birmingham, a place that not even Peaky Blinders thought was cool, is testament to how little the event means.
It’s held in those secondary cities because it’s a secondary a secondary event. It isn’t the Olympics. It isn’t even truly global. The World Championships for the various sports are more compelling theatre because the best of the best compete to win. Not the best of a failed empire’s old toys.
So, what does it mean for the Commonwealth games to be leaving Victoria? Well, it means we get to laugh at government incompetence again. It means traffic won’t marginally tick up in 3 years.
Victoria's decision to cancel the 2026 Commonwealth Games could cost taxpayers a billion dollars.
Confronted by protesters, the Premier says the number is still being negotiated, as officials in London came out swinging. @_Stephanderson #9News pic.twitter.com/AvtUoRhgOZ
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) July 19, 2023
It means what it would have meant for Michelle Williams to leave Destiny’s Child. Not much.
I’ll end this article with this: what’s your favourite Commonwealth Games memory? John Steffenson talking a lot before not winning at the Olympics but romping it in at the Commonwealth Games? Something that happened on the Gold Coast…on the sporting field? Truly, what is it? I’ve been racking my brains to think of one.
So, the games have left Victoria. Nobody cared when they came.
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