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TOUCHLINE
ISSUE 19 | NOV 2014
TOUCHLINE
FEATURE
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that Canada got in third. Australia can go into a minor
strop for only coming second. Ghana sent 70 athletes and
won just two bronzes. The list of absurdity goes on and
on. Clearly, The Commonwealth Games are not really very
logical.
But one of the advantages of branding the competition
“The Friendly Games” is that in a philosophical sense you
undermine the argument that the best has to meet the
best. What Glasgow did so well was to make this event
about the fun and joy of sport. There was never a chance
of two badminton teams playing to lose as happened
at the London Olympic Games. There are no countries
growling at each other across borders spiked with artillery.
This is an event where netball gets coverage. And the
predominantly Scottish crowd actually cheered on the
English teams.
Take-aways for the Gold Coast: Don’t engage with the
Captain Buzzkill. The Commonwealth Games is full of elite
athletes doing amazing things. Just because not many of
them are call Sergei doesn’t make them less worthy of our
attention.
The Organisation
Overall, the success of the Games
is down to the people of Glasgow.
The organisers saw ways to get their
most precious resource working towards a common end.
So they should be commended. But the excellence of the
Glaswegians is the raw product.
The enormous pride, humour and good-will of the
spectators made the whole thing float. Using the people of
Glasgow as an army of volunteers paid off, ensuring that
the buzz of the game spread throughout the entire city. As
champion squash player James Willstrop says “Transport
was perfection and running the logistics of all operations
were armies of helpful and pleasant volunteers, who did a
fabulous job.”
The community was plugged into the planning from the
outset. An example of the inclusive way the Games were
approached was the designing of the Games’ Mascot,
Clyde.
A large green thistle, the character was created by
schoolgirl Beth Gilmour when she was just 12 years old. He
proved a huge hit, outselling all other official merchandise.
Beth said “It’s really good to see, I feel like it’s my own part
of the Games and it’s really good to be involved in a such a
good thing.”
And that is the point. By making the people of Glasgow
feel involved, they bought into the whole event. They could
have engaged focus groups and commercial peddlers to
make the mascot, but instead they left it to a high schooler.
Take-aways for the Gold Coast: use the community as
much as possible. The Commonwealth Games brand has
been redefined by Glasgow. This should be driven and
supported by the community.
ClydeAuditoriumhostedtheWeightlifting.
SOURCE: FinlayMcWalter