If people don鈥檛 think the Commonwealth Games still matter, they only had to look at the reaction of mountain-biker Haley Smith. The emerging Bear Mountain-based cyclist put a hand over her mouth in near disbelief, and then pulled it down to reveal a broad smile, as she crossed the line to win a breakout bronze medal for herself in the 2018 Games held in Gold Coast, Australia.
The Commonwealth Games, as they always do, destroyed the tired arguments regarding their relevance by again providing a useful half-way measuring stick to the next Summer Olympics.
The 21st edition, which concluded Sunday with the closing ceremony in Gold Coast, introduced a host of young Island athletes who will bear watching on the road to Tokyo 2020.
There were 283 Canadian athletes competing in Gold Coast, of whom 52 were from the Island or live and train full-time in Greater Victoria. There were several revelations.
The fluid inside-outside threat Conor Morgan of Victoria led the all-student sa国际传媒 team to the gold-medal game in men鈥檚 basketball Saturday, settling for silver after an 87-47 loss to the all-pro host Aussies, to show why the Mount Douglas Secondary-graduate is the greatest male hoops player out of U Sports since the Scrubb brothers of Carleton.
The Langford-based Canadian women鈥檚 rugby sevens team, however, showed it needs work en route to Tokyo 2020 if it wants to follow up its bronze medal from the 2016 Rio Olympics. sa国际传媒, beaten 33-7 by the inspired host Aussies in the semifinals, then lost 24-19 in the bronze-medal game Sunday to the English to finish off the podium. The Canadians will be looking to make up for that disappointment in the sa国际传媒 Sevens from May 12-13 at Westhills Stadium.
The Langford-based Canadian men鈥檚 team didn鈥檛 make it past its pool and fell short of the medal round in what was a mini-Olympics with 10 of the 13 top nations in the world from the Commonwealth.
While it was time to bid farewell to 2016 Rio Olympic bronze-medallist Hilary Caldwell鈥檚 pool career with a fifth-place finish, there are plenty following in her wake at Saanich Commonwealth Place, as Claremont Secondary-graduate Sarah Darcel鈥檚 silver medal in Gold Coast Games swimming showed she is on beam for Tokyo. Her co-swimmers out of the national training centre at Saanich Commonwealth Place, Faith Knelson of Ladysmith and Jeremy Bagshaw of Victoria, had fourth-place results in Gold Coast, while Jade Hannah was a finalist and is also aiming for Japan in two years.
Gold Coast were breakout Games for a pair of bronze-medallist Island cyclists in mountain-biker Smith and team-pursuit track cyclist Jay Lamoureux of Victoria, as the Games also were in track and field for fourth-place hammer-thrower Adam Keenan of Victoria.
The Victoria-based Canadian triathlon team showed promise through the women鈥檚 bronze medal from Joanna Brown; and Matthew Sharpe of Victoria and Desirae Ridenour of Cowichan Bay as part of the gutsy, fourth-place finish in the mixed team relay, which makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
鈥淲e [were] very disappointed to not get on the podium, so until next time,鈥� said Ridenour.
Added Canadian triathlon relay member Tyler Mislawchuk: 鈥淚 have no doubt there will be a Canadian gold medal in the mixed team relay future.鈥�
Victoria players James Kirkpatrick, Maddie Secco and Kathleen Leahy were part of the top-drawer Commonwealth Games men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 field-hockey tournaments in Gold Coast and readied themselves for the rigours of Olympic qualifying to come. So did Victoria Boardworks divers Bryden Hattie and Celina Toth, who will take their respective sixth- and ninth-place showings and build to Tokyo.
It wouldn鈥檛 be a Commonwealth Games without the verdant, manicured greens. Lawn bowls serves the role in the Commonwealth Games that curling does in the Winter Olympics. Maybe the Island鈥檚 heartbreak athlete of the Gold Coast Games was Leanne Chinery of Victoria, who made two bronze-medal finals, in women鈥檚 pairs with Kelly McKerihen and as skip of the Canadian fours, only to lose the first to Scotland and second to Malta.
Erica Wiebe of Stittsville, Ont., who followed up her Olympic 76-kilo wrestling gold from Rio 2016 with gold at Gold Coast, carried the Canadian flag in the closing ceremony. She became the first wrestler to carry the flag since Daniel Igali -- who defected from the Nigerian team at the 1994 Victoria Games and won Olympic gold for sa国际传媒 at Sydney 2000 鈥� carried the Maple Leaf at Manchester in 2002.
鈥淭he Commonwealth Games have a special place in my heart and have been pivotal in the past [she was also gold medallist at Glasgow 2014] as I worked towards making the 2016 Olympic team, and now as I work towards my best performance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,鈥� said Wiebe.
鈥淭he 2014 Commonwealth Games gave me the experience of competing at a major multi-sport games and the confidence going into Rio that I knew what it would take to perform. Defending my Commonwealth Games title was a good test for the pressure that I will face leading into the next Olympics, and I am excited for the challenge.鈥�
sa国际传媒 was third in overall medals with 82 behind Australia鈥檚 196 and England鈥檚 132. But in gold medals, which is the international ranking standard, sa国际传媒 was fourth with 15 behind the Aussie鈥檚 80, England鈥檚 43 and India鈥檚 26.
The Commonwealth Games, despite their colonial roots, are among the most progressive. Not only did Indigenous reconciliation played a big part in the opening ceremony of the Gold Coast Games, but the Commonwealth Games are the only international multi-sport Games in which para-sports are included in the regular program, with the results counting in the medal standings and the only Games in which there are an equal number of medal sports for women and men.
In media interviews at Gold Coast, the Commonwealth Games鈥� CEO David Grevemberg, an American of all things, brought up names such as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley in pointing out the rich historical tapestry that binds together this group of nations.
The Commonwealth should embrace what it is, not run away from it. It鈥檚 a message that seems oddly to resonate, even in a cynical age of so-called 'anti-colonialism.鈥� sa国际传媒 has a popular new astronaut/Governor General in Julie Payette. In pop culture, The Crown has turned into a massive hit for Netflix and the world seems transfixed by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's upcoming May 19 Royal wedding. Even politically, it is thought post-Brexit Britain will naturally drift back closer to its old Commonwealth buddies. It seems the Commonwealth still has legs.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games will be hosted by Birmingham, England.
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