Title: [SCOT goes POP!] Would it be a good thing or a bad thing if the Commonwealth Games fold?
Post by: ALBA-Bot on Mar 03, 2024, 12:34 AM
Post by: ALBA-Bot on Mar 03, 2024, 12:34 AM
Would it be a good thing or a bad thing if the Commonwealth Games fold?
Source: Would it be a good thing or a bad thing if the Commonwealth Games fold? (//)
I was at the Emirates in Glasgow this morning to get a taste of the World Athletics Indoor Championships, and as you can see from the photos below I had a good spot to cheer on Jemma Reekie as she won her semi-final. I felt a bit sorry for the chap in the Morocco shirt, though - I'm not sure if he was a very passionate coach or a family member (probably the latter), but he was on the floor with his head in his hands for a good five minutes after the Moroccan runner went from being in the lead in one of the men's 800m semis, to being caught on the line by several athletes, and missed out on qualification altogether.
Having been to several Davis Cup matches in the same venue over the years, I was fully braced for the now-familiar incongruity of a Union Jack Fest across the road from Celtic Park, but actually it wasn't too bad. It was a very international audience, and to the extent that there were 'home' flags, there were as many saltires as Butcher's Aprons.
I was remembering that the first time I was at the Emirates was for the badminton during the Commonwealth Games ten years ago, which prompted me to check whether there has been any resolution to the crisis over the hosting of the next Commonwealth Games in 2026. It seems there hasn't been, and the likelihood is that the event will either be postponed for a year or cancelled altogether. If the latter happens, there must be a question mark over whether the Commonwealth Games will ever be held again.
I'm not quite sure how I would feel about that. On the one hand, the demise of the event would be seen as accelerating the increased irrelevance of the monarchy, which would obviously be thoroughly welcome. Queen Elizabeth was obsessed with the Commonwealth, because it was the only sense in which she had held together her supposed birthright of Empire. Without the Commonwealth Games, is there really a Commonwealth? It's the only thing that gives the institution any real meaning for most people.
But on the other hand, the Commonwealth Games is the one and only opportunity for Scotland to compete as a nation in its own right in a number of high-profile sports, most notably track-and-field and swimming. It's also an opportunity for Scotland to win medals in sports that are popular here but are clearly never going to make the Olympic programme, with the obvious example being lawn bowls.
So maybe on the whole the pros outweigh the cons and we should hope that the Commonwealth Games survive in some form.
Source: Would it be a good thing or a bad thing if the Commonwealth Games fold? (//)