Commonwealth Games Reflection

The Games

I am a sceptic.  Last year my wife was very keen to enter the lottery to go in the draw to get tickets to the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.  I relented.  I remember being sceptical enough not to get tickets to the Sydney 2000 Olympics and then regretting it once the games began and the hype increased.

Anyway, we got tickets to the Netball, the Athletics and the Rugby 7’s.  Watched the opening ceremony on TV, watched a bit of beach volleyball on TV, a bit of swimming and started to get hyped.

Then we went to the netball.  It was awesome.  The movement of people to and from venues, the volunteers and the positivity, the venues, the hype, the actual competition and sporting excellence, the vibe, the whole shebangabang completely overwhelmed my scepticism and we loved it.  I grabbed an extra ticket to go the hockey as well with a hockey tragic mate and loved that too.  Every occasion we had to be there we had the same experience, a truly world class competition and an internationally envious organization of the whole games.

And then came the closing ceremony.  Wasn’t that something.  We stayed up all night and watched that on telly.  Like many Australians we wondered about some of the song choices and the artists, we certainly wondered where the athletes were and suspected that the broadcasters were holding them until last to keep us glued to out telly as long as possible.  But they never came.  Sadly.

And then they cut to Johanna Griggs and Basil Sempilas.  That was a moon landing moment I reckon.  Those who saw it live will remember it for the rest of their lives.  It was quite shocking and unexpected and certainly added to the hype about the whole show.  I think it made the gap between the real and the ideal seem larger than it actually was.

I feel a bit sad about all of that negativity though.  I think one of the really good decisions that was made by the organisers was to include school kids and volunteers in both the opening and closing ceremonies.  Our College had a number of students participating in both, and ex-students as well.  They trained so hard, spent so many long nights for months in preparation, contributed selflessly to the event in service of something greater than themselves, and they shone.  The images we saw on TV of the life guards, the dancers, the kids with the glowing cubes, choirs, all of them were terrific.  Their enthusiasm and dedication was so obvious to see and should be applauded and praised.  The very spirit of the games that we all saw so openly each day through the service of the volunteers at events, for my money, was beautifully echoed in the participation of those kids from across Queensland and they deserve to be equally honored and cherished as such.

I think we need to be really careful when we criticise.  There is honour in heartfelt voluntary endeavour.  Some of the decisions that were made about that ceremony are right to be questioned, but overwhelmingly we should give thanks for that which is done on our behalf, without our request, in service of our greater good.

Particularly given we have just emerged from the Easter break.

Buen Camino