Commonwealth Games 2022 in retrospect
They have been and continue to be labelled, ‘The Friendly Games’.
The most recent edition of the Commonwealth Games, the 22nd edition, have only just concluded on Monday 8 August, in the English city of Birmingham.
As the dust settles on the city, sand perhaps even across England, some of us find it necessary to quickly analyse the event in as many aspects as possible.
It is no secret that the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) faced challenges in getting a host nation for the Games of 2022 and it may have taken some persuasion to get Birmingham to submit a bid, becoming the only potential and eventual host city.
Importantly, the same situation may well have repeated itself for the next edition of the Games. Fortunately, the Australian city of Victoria, has come forward and is the only bidder for the Games of 2026.
There is little doubt that the owners of the Commonwealth Games, the CGF, must be bothered, even if less so than hitherto, by the foregoing facts.
The interest being shown in hosting the Games of 2030, the 100th anniversary of the event, may well be the kind of boost it needs to bolster the outcome of years of surveys, etc., on the pathways that should be followed in its strategic plan going forward.
For many, therefore, Birmingham’s success may well be precisely the impetus the CGF needs at this juncture.
A welcoming city
On leaving Birmingham on Monday last, the morning of the final day of competition and the closing ceremony, a volunteer, a man of colour, accompanied my from the Welcome Centre to the Heathrow Airport, assisting with my departure.
Not surprisingly, the volunteer inquired of my stay in Birmingham and whether or not I had found the Games and the broader experience, satisfactory. I quickly responded that the experience was remarkable and that in many instances, better some of my Olympic Games’ experiences.
The volunteer then informed me that he was from Birmingham and that his own experience as a volunteer for the Games led him to be overwhelmed at his home city. He was elated, eagerly explaining just how proud the people of Birmingham had made him by their openness, generosity and sheer commitment to being excellent hosts to the peoples of the Commonwealth, even if only for a few days.
It is never easy to agree to expend millions of dollars to host sport teams in one city for two or more weeks and get the support of the home population that it is all worth it.
In the case of Birmingham, the city agreed the investment, although, even before the onset of COVID-19 and its attendant economic fallout, and committed to a relatively frugal budget, utilisation of existing facilities, for the most part, full community engagement, and careful management of the Games’ carbon footprint. Track cycling was taken to London, avoiding the ‘unnecessary expense’ of constructing yet another velodrome in the UK.
A cosmopolitan city, Birmingham welcomed the Commonwealth with immeasurable warmth. This was not left only to those attending the competitions but just about everywhere that one went during the Games. An entire city had been fully energised and where, the city officials had carefully facilitated everyone’s safety in these very troubling times.
Crowds at the competition venues left every participant feeling that just being there, in the arena, wearing one’s national colours, was, in and of itself, a remarkable achievement.
By Games’ time, the Organising Committee was able to boast of having reached the milestone, ‘on time and in budget’, a feat that is not always achievable, much to the delight of all the people of Birmingham.
Sport Competitions
The sport competitions were spread across Birmingham and of course, as already mentioned, London, hosted track cycling.
The several competitions were very well organised, whatever their location and or their originally created intent. One got the impression that every effort was made to render each venue, ‘fit for purpose.
The athletes appreciated and certainly enjoyed the facilities and the atmosphere created by the ambience and the overwhelmingly supportive crowds in attendance.
We always claim that sport is about the athlete and one of Birmingham’s most enduring legacy will be the fact that the athletes understood the efforts made to have them the centre of focus in their exposition of talent in one competitive arena after another. This must have been the reason that the athletes served up so many new Games’ records as well as personal and season bests.
Of course, everyone who was involved in the Games would have relished the participation of the world’s best in all areas but that was not to be.
Many have had their opinions on what his means and how it should be addressed. The reality though, is that this was not the case in all sports and those that lacked them, well, perhaps they were not really missed. Theirs was the loss, really. The beneficiaries were those who came and endeared themselves with countless others by their participation. They were the ones to enjoy the adulation of the thousands that fared the weather and the millions that followed online.
Lovable lasting memories
Sport aficionados will take immense delight in the legacies that they will forever harbour in respect of the Commonwealth Games, Birmingham 2022.
Electric vehicles
On arrival in Birmingham it was evident that here was a city committed to significantly reducing its carbon footprint for future generations. For those who had any doubt, their immediate experience was the use of electric vehicles throughout the Games.
All of the vehicles assigned to delegations for use were electric.
The cars allocated to the Games Family were not only electric, but among the most popular in the world. This fact amazed not just the persons being taken in them but also the volunteers who had the good fortune of beings assigned the role of driver.
The joyful experience of being driven or driving a Tesla was always in evidence. That some experienced being driven in one of the latest models of the wide range of vehicles available in the car pool was a memorable experience.
Opening Ceremony
What an amazing spectacle, this event was.
To many, it was the most impressive welcoming that the city of Birmingham had on offer. It lacked nothing and delivered everything.
The athletes’ parade warmed the hearts of the people of Birmingham as much as the reverse was taking place even as early as the Opening Ceremony.
Perry, the bull, the mascot of the Games, became an integral of the Birmingham experience.
The bull was the centrepiece of the Opening Ceremony. Once it graced the arena, everything else seemed to gain relevance to and through it. Small wonder then that the Bull Ring, downtown Birmingham, was the home of ‘The Bull Ring’ where the Games’ souvenir megastore was housed and a tremendously popular attraction outside of the dynamic competitions.
Those amazing volunteers
No Games can ever be truly successful without the provision of well trained, enthusiastic and committed volunteers. Birmingham offered a Games Volunteer Corps that criss-crossed generations, gender, ethnicity, race, religion and other affiliations, individually and collectively, engaged in a triumphant pantomime of selfless service to humanity through sport.
Time was immaterial in so far as demands on the services of volunteers were concerned. Wherever they were assigned they took on the responsibility as a genuine sense of duty, an enduringly fulfilling commitment to Birmingham, the host city.
It did not matter that they were not from the city. They came to be part of what the city offered the Commonwealth in every sense, proud to have been accepted and eager to be part of an historic legacy that will live forever.
Inclusion
For many, if there is one feature that held sway, consistently throughout the Games, it was the powerful message and evidence of inclusion.
Birmingham made room for all. The city joined forces with a CGF in a state of renewal and change.
Birmingham was much more than ‘no one left behind’. It was a milestone in ‘we can do much more together’
Challenges
Let us not leave this edition of the Commonwealth Games believing that it was all positive.
For sure, there were immense challenges.
There were many pitfall in several critical areas of Games preparation and management just as there were in sport technical and administrative.
Space does not allow us to address the foregoing at this juncture but suffice it to say that we were aware of them.
What is perhaps significantly more important, however, is that there were consistent monitoring an devaluation mechanisms, not all of which worked as intended. Changes were constantly being made, enroute.
The jury is still out in terms of just how well the crises were managed. We can expect much more on this in the short to medium term and of course, when sport historians are done with their work, in the distant future.
Conclusion
Many may chastise the historic wrongs that were perpetrated by the then brutish British Conquering ambitions and subsequent Colonial imperatives. This is necessary.
We must also chastise the debilitating feats that forged the Commonwealth.
Over the past several decades, however, the leadership of the Commonwealth Secretariat has been elected into the hands of those who wield power and influence in nations that were once colonies of the Empire. We may all justifiably ask, ‘what have they done?’ ‘What have they achieved?’
One thing is certain. The Commonwealth Games of the recent past have been significantly much more focused on the task at hand – healing through sport.
Nelson Mandela saw the power of sport for good; for healing. But while many were able to hold his ideals aloft, we have witnessed the heady demise of South Africa in many critical areas, almost as though his words have dissipated in the winds of time, much like his life.
The CGF has been taking up the mantle of truth and reconciliation, bringing successive generations of formerly colonised peoples to the awareness of their historical antecedents and the immense responsibility that befalls all of us to effect meaningful and sustainable change, the one constant in life.
We cannot create a world for future generations founded on incessant conflict, lies, denials and an abandonment of global history.
We cannot create a world in the future by finding new ways of distorting reality and selling false ideals while engaging in dubiously, despicable practices, especially in sport.
The time for healing is now!
