The Australian squad, with a medal tally of 198, were quite a merry bunch at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Carrara Stadium. (Source: Reuters)
Victory has a colour. It’s green and gold. The Broadbeach South bus station is swarmed with fans dressed in the Australian colours. Every day, thousands of spectators take buses to the Games venues from this hub. Today, they are greeted by a cheery driver. “Big news,” he bellows, “Australia haven’t won a medal… in 30 minutes!”
It draws a few chuckles and gets him a couple of high fives. Such has been Australia’s dominance over the last 10 days that 30 minutes without a medal feel like a lifetime. By the time the curtain fell on the Gold Coast Games on Sunday, the hosts topped the table with a tally of 198 medals, including 80 gold, almost twice as much as England, who as expected finished second with 136 medals (45 gold).
If you want to understand why Australia are so good, a cursory glance at the venues would suffice. There were concerns about poor ticket sales but every session was brimming, and kids formed a significant part of the crowd. These weren’t schoolchildren who were doled out free tickets to fill the stands. But the pricing strategy (Au$10 for children, Au$20-40 for adults) was such that the Games became an excuse for family outings.
So the adults guzzled beer in the outdoor bars at the venues while the kids had their own play areas. Hockey, for instance, has a drag-flick corner with soft balls and mini sticks; Oxenford Studios has a boxing ring, punching bag and gloves, and so on. “If you see, these are all 4-5-year-olds who’ve come here and are getting hooked to sport. People talk about leaving a legacy, this will be the real one,” Mark Knowles, Australian hockey captain, says.
The Games were also a perfect balm for a nation suffering a meltdown after the Sandpapergate (as organising committee chairman Peter Beattie declared, “Australia has restored its global reputation”). They’ve healed so much that the banter’s already back. The other day, the Gold Coast Bulletin dedicated one full page to Australia’s performance, although it ended up mocking England more. A graphic of a kangaroo with boxing gloves sitting on a bulldog was splashed over half a page alongside the headline, “God save their team.”
Pummelling the Poms
To the Aussies, just one thing mattered – pummel the Poms. And England couldn’t bear the ignominy of being humbled by Australia. All other countries were incidental. Some, though, still made some noise. India were the loudest among them – both for good and bad reasons. The syringe-gate left the entire contingent red-faced but the performances turned out to be a face-saver.
Two aspects stand out for India – the variety of sports they medalled in (hockey is the only sport where they actually under-performed) and the number of athletes in the age group of 18 to 25 who returned with dominating performance – if Manika Batra were a country, she’d have finished 18th on the table with her four medals, including two gold.
For India, these Games might go down as the one where the baton was officially passed from one generation of athletes to another. This, however, in no way will ensure automatic success at the Tokyo Olympics. It can, however, act as a springboard like the Delhi CWG did before the London Games.
These Games have been hailed as a success, and not just by the Australians. Indian athletes, like the rest, could not get enough of the Village, splashed with colour and stylish architecture. A BBC journalist went as far as to suggest that Gold Coast should be a fixed venue for all the multi-discipline Games. And it echoes the opinions of many who’ve visited the coastal city over the last fortnight.
Vocal home support
The ingredients for the success were many. But three stand out: the people, the city and the transport. Last one first – the whole of Gold Coast was so worried about the transport system breaking down that elaborate appeals were made by City Council CEO Dale Dickson to ditch private cars and use the trams. And it worked perfectly, well almost. There was an odd occasion where the GPS on the bus malfunctioned and they reached New South Wales.
But the city’s streets did not clog and the trams could hold the rush of thousands of people everyday. Perhaps the laid-back vibe of the city contributed, too. Gold Coast welcomed the Commonwealth Games as one. The city shored up its infrastructure, which it lacked before, but refrained from splurging billions on new stadiums. Instead, the existing ones were refurbished – the Metricon Stadium, which otherwise hosts footie, got a temporary stand that increased its capacity to close to 35,000. It will be razed this week and the giant scoreboard will be back at its usual spot.
Netball was held at a convention centre while boxing, squash and table tennis were played at a movie studio. This week, each of these venues will return to its original avatar. The beaches, parks and prolific greenery provided a stunning natural backdrop to the Games and got them visitors, although not as many as they had projected.
Paul Chakos, a pensioner from Sydney, travelled to Gold Coast just for the Games. He’s been here all week, been to two sessions every day and has spent the evenings by the beach – if you ever wanted a template for a perfect vacation, try this one. The locals, except some business owners, did not see the Games as a punishment. Rather, they embraced it.
The Games only added to the general festive feel. The buzz wasn’t restricted to the venues alone. Each night, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach came to life with live concerts and parties on the beach, all themed around the Games.
Gold Coast has a colour for celebration, too. And it’s green and gold.
Two short
198 Australia bagged these many medals, of which 80 were gold, 59 silver and as many silver. Arch-rivals England were distant second with 45 golds, India next-best with 26.
80 It’s their equal fourth gold-medal tally at a CWG, the historical high remains 87 golds at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games.
5 Swimmer Mitch Larkin bagged five medals, the most medals by any athlete in the event. Two Australians —McKeon and fellow swimmer Kyle Chalmers— won four golds. Three other —swimmers Cate Campbell, her sister Bronte and 17-year-old Ariarne Titmus —won three gold.