Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi Oi Oi.
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If you live in Australia, and Melbourne in particular, it would be hard not to notice that the Commonwealth Games have been underway for a little over a week now. (If you've never heard of the Commonwealth Games then you're probably not from a former British colony. It's somewhat like the Olympics but without all those pesky countries such as the USA, Russia and China to make us feel inadequate.)
Anyway, living in Melbourne as I do, it's hard not to be overwhelmed by the media coverage here and the constant whir of helicopters overhead, no doubt protecting us from all those nasty would-be terrorists that somehow think it's worth attacking a country that is 85% uninhabitable, in constant drought and has nothing much to offer (according to our media) besides sport.
Australia, it seems, fairs pretty well in the 'Games. At last tally we had close to double the number of medals of the nearest competitor—Hardly surprising considering we're second only to the US in terms of public dollars spent on sports.
However, all that money seems a little wasted really. Not because I don't think sports are important for the health of the nation but because if you were to actually sit and watch any of the television coverage, or read anything in the print media, you'd soon start to wonder if there are actually any other nations competing.
I've looked long and hard. I've watched every television channel and read evey newspaper I could find but try as I might, I get the distinct impression that the only people competing are from Australia. Indeed in some events, I'm not actually sure what the rules are as no one appears to win a gold medal—the whole point I would have thought. For some strange reason, the only apparent competiror in the race (an Australian do less) somehow had to "make do" with a Silver medal or stranger still, receive no medal at all even though they ran a personal best time.
I know for a fact there are other competitors from other nations here in Melbourne (I presume for the purpose of competing) but besides those named as missing—possibly seeking political asylum—I'm yet to actually see any compete or win medals.
Perhaps I need to go and see an actual event live and have a look for myself? Then again, maybe I'll stay at home instead and let all those fantastic images of Australians doing so well allow me to forget for a moment the fact that we spend more on our sporting elite than we do on health for the average citizen.
Comments
You whinging unpatriotic so and so. For those of you that dont know, Simon was born in "The Mother Country" to a father of "Pure Blood". So I think he is just a little jealous.
Now if you really did watch the games you would have seen a number of non australians win medals, some examples are the South African John Steffensen who won the mens 400mtrs Japanese Erika Yamasaki who won bronze in the womens 48Kgs Weightlifting. Then there are the ones to come such as china's Miao Miao in the table tennis and Russias Tatiana Grigorieva n the Pole vault.
What more do you want!!!
Andrew ;-)
Posted by: Andrew Harris | March 24, 2006 12:28 PM
What olympic inadequacy?
http://simon.forsyth.net/olympics.html
Posted by: Jared | March 24, 2006 01:19 PM
I'm not the one that feels the need to remind myself how many (Gold) medals we win ;-) I know Australia does well. I certainly don't need to be reminded about it to the exclusion of almost all others.
One of the great things about the Commonwealth Games is you need not qualify to get in; if you're a commonwealth nation then you are entitled to enter a competitor in an event. So I'd really like to see more of other countries performances, more bios on other competitors, even if *shock horror* they don't win.
Maybe we could spend a little less on sport to even up the competition a little ;-)
Posted by: Simon Harris![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.redhillconsulting.com.au/blogs/simon/nav-commenters.gif)
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March 24, 2006 01:23 PM
I have a solution for dealing with the coverage- forget about the rest of the world, and focus on the state rivalry. :) I've been breaking down wins by state. It makes the medal count much more interesting. (a href="http://www.ruschena.org/michael/?p=50">Day 6 breakdown). Victoria was beating New South Wales, but Queensland is beating everyone.
Posted by: Michael | March 24, 2006 01:26 PM
Firtsly, Jared I love that link. I think it should be used for all medal tallies. Might forward that to the IOC. It actually shows how well we do do in comparison to the rest of the world.
Now lets thin about this another way. The TV Stations have to pay for air time, they figure there are 21 million people in Australia, safe bet is that they want to see australians competing.
If you want to see something other than Australians competing, go to an event. If you want to be lazy and watch it on TV, your stuck with the majority! Democracy is great isnt it!
Posted by: Andrew Harris | March 24, 2006 01:49 PM
Yes, the Aussies, bless them, can do no wrong in such rare, salubrious times as Melbourne hosting a major international event (other than the Grand Prix), especially without the presence of the major international powers (and what WAS Condoleezza Rice doing at events when I couldn't get a ticket?!).
I HAVE actually heard a few anthems other than "Advance..." but without the sight of thousands of glowing faces in the audience and official areas mouthing the words in time, it's not much to look at, so no wonder the media avoid it... But it's not all about our usual Aussie idols: I was touched by the hearty embrace by audience and commentators alike of those Australians not quite typically "Australian" (such as Armenian-born weightlifter Alex Karapetyan), when adding gold to our medal tally.
One thing I'm very happy about is the lack of "Oi, Oi, Oi" I've heard this time. Maybe somebody has actually pressed the pause button on that chant while they try to come up with something more original and, dare I say, less neanderthal.
Now if they could only find those pesky deserters and make sure they are ok... ;)
Posted by: P Jones | March 25, 2006 10:48 AM
Actually you would be surprised at how one sided a lot of coverage tends to be. Based here in London, I thought for a second that we (Aus) weren't actually winning many medals because all the media shows are events where the UK wins. The tally total proved otherwise.
Posted by: Pat | March 29, 2006 06:06 PM