Richard Nicholson has experienced first hand the evolution of the Paralympics, and with it, the shift in perception of disabilities and para-athletes.
Cathy Freeman was criticised for flying the Aboriginal flag at the 1994 Commonwealth Games but the same act at the Sydney 2000 Olympics was hailed as a moment of reconciliation.
Reuters/Jerry Lampen
Athletes are increasingly expected to be good role models. But we don’t usually expect them to sacrifice their chance of winning to help others.
Seabelo Senatla of South Africa scores a try against New Zealand during the gold medal match of the Rugby Sevens at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Reuters/Russell Cheyne
By investing in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, South Africa sacrifices investment in pressing societal needs. Instead, the country should be mobilised around the national goal of fixing schooling.
Leaders at the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013. Malta will host the next one in November 2015.
Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte
The Commonwealth is politically fraught, with widely divergent members. But, instead of unravelling as some critics wish, it has instead inspired copycats and appears set to grow and endure.
If they want to get kids on the pitch, Plaid will have to address inequalities.
joncandy/Flickr
r all of India’s cricketing passion, economic strength and for that matter its population size, the country is arguably the world’s most under-achieving sporting nation.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games have been praised for integrating the para-sports programme into the main schedule and including the medals in the tally of each nation. The London Olympics in 2012 told a similar…
Jubilation in 2011 after the Gold Coast scored the 2018 Commonwealth Games … but will they be worth it?
AAP/Patrick Hamilton
Goodbye Glasgow and hello Gold Coast. The Commonwealth Games will return Down Under in 2018 and already there are bold projections: Gold Coast Games Federation chair Nigel Chamier expects the creation…
The legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth Games will be a grey area for years to come.
Daniel0685/Flickr
The 20th Commonwealth Games have come and gone. Glasgow has demonstrated that it can successfully deliver a large-scale, global, multi-sport and cultural event. It can fill the stadia, shuttle people around…
The last African games bid from Abuja fell short in Sri Lanka in 2007.
EPA
With the end of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, it is tempting to suggest that its success might just have saved the event. Certainly what has not been in question is that its future has been in doubt…
Good with shuttlecocks: the Adcocks.
Peter Byrne/PA
One intriguing subplot during the Commonwealth Games has been the progress of English husband-and-wife team Chris and Gabby Adcock in the badminton mixed-doubles. The couple are a good bet for a gold medal…
Javelin throwers make it look easy, but there’s more to the action than you might think.
David Davies/PA Wire
The Commonwealth Games women’s javelin finals were held overnight, with Aussies Kim Mickle and Kelsey-Lee Roberts picking up gold (plus a Games record) and bronze respectively. Seven-time British champion…
Emma McKeon, Alicia Coutts, Brittany Elmslie and Bronte Barratt after winning the 4x200m Freestyle Final. Emma and Brittany are also undergraduate students at Griffith University.
Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Australia sent 417 athletes to the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games – its largest ever contingent – and based on our 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games competitors, around 40% are university students…
The miles of high fence separating east end Glaswegians from games athletes.
Hilary Mooney
Since the Commonwealth Games got underway, much praise has been heaped on the city and its population for the event’s apparent success so far (even if Usain Bolt was alleged to have suggested otherwise…
So you’ve travelled to the Commonwealth Games, you’ve done the standard tourist route and you’ve figured out that your English phrase book is not much cop. Panic no more. Here is your essential guide to…
Medals for para-sport events in the Commonwealth Games, such as para-cycling tandem sprint, count towards national medal tallies.
Tim Ireland/PA Wire
Australian athletes at the Commonwealth Games won a stack of medals over the weekend, bringing the nation to the top of the medal tally. Of the Aussie medal winners, para-swimmer Daniel Fox took gold in…
I’d like Scottish independence and a large fries, please.
Scottish Government
Celtic Park is hosting one of the biggest spectacles in the sporting calendar. The 40,000 spectators will be treated to the vagaries of the sports-media-entertainment complex: Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle…
The Commonwealth is not quite the hoped for beacon of tolerance.
EPA
On Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18, academic and activist speakers from a range of national contexts came together in Glasgow for a groundbreaking conference on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender…
World’s fastest man will be glued to the baton stick.
Adam Davy/PA
If you’re grumbling about the number of athletes who have opted out of or are still prevaricating about whether to compete in the Commonwealth Games, blame Usain Bolt. The most charismatic and globally…
Shipping on the Clyde, 1881, by John Atkinson Grimshaw.
The “second city of empire” was how this year’s host of the Commonwealth Games used to be well known. Glasgow’s imperial past is hinted at by names littered throughout the city centre, in geographic pointers…