ASK any athlete who has experienced both the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics and almost without exception, they will say that the Commonwealth Games have a distinctly different feel in comparison to the biggest multi-sport event in the world.
The Commonwealths are dubbed “the friendly games” for good reason; there is a far more relaxed feel than there is at the Olympics and a noticeably less pressurised atmosphere.
The Olympics have transformed into such a behemoth that although it is still technically an amateur event, there is nothing amateur about it any longer. Almost every Olympic medallist is a full-time, fully funded athlete who is entirely professional in everything but name.
The Commonwealth Games, on the other hand, whilst still packed full of full-time athletes, has far more scope for athletes who are not funded to a level which allows them to consider their sport their day-job.
For every Katie Archibald, Ross Murdoch or Hannah Miley whose entire life is dedicated to training and competing, the Scotland team has an athlete who has strived to make the Games despite working full-time, owning a business or bringing up a family.
Watching the Olympics, there is a sense that there is no room in elite sport for anyone who is not full-time. But the Commonwealth Games give an entirely different perspective and there is something hugely heartening about that.
There is Archibald’s brother, John, who works in the family bed business and who Katie admits gives her an appreciation of just how charmed her life is; Lisa Tobias, the weightlifter who runs a Dominos pizza franchise and has two young kids and the men’s hockey team, most of whom have full-time jobs and even have to crowd-fund to finance their international tournaments.
But perhaps one of the most interesting individuals in Team Scotland is cyclist Wale, who not only has made his own way to elite sport but also commented on these pages a week ago that had he been in a national system, he would never have made the grade.
He would not, he believes, have fitted in with the rigid structure and inflexible programme that is often the hallmark of these set-ups. While programmes such as British Cycling churn out world and Olympic medallists with remarkable frequency, there is little scope for individualism.
Most observers watch the Olympics and see the athletes as these kind of other-worldly specimens who spend every waking minute dedicating themselves to sporting success. Watching the Olympics can make young athletes feel like the distance between them and those on the podium is ginormous.
But there’s something about the Commonwealth Games that seems far more achievable. While there won’t be many athletes on the top step of the podium who are not full-time, there will be countless who are fighting for spots in finals or springing upsets despite having to take time off their day job or studies to just be in Gold Coast.
And this is why Laura Muir is such an important athlete. The 24-year-old is not a part of Team Scotland in Australia because she is preparing for her final veterinary exams and so skipped the Games in order to concentrate on her studies. Yet despite nearing the end of one of the most difficult degrees out there, she has fought her way to the top of her sport and is competing with athletes who have few distractions in their day to day life.
There needs to be more like Laura Muir, who show young athletes that it is possible to combine a degree or a job with elite sport.
And that’s what the Commonwealth Games prove too – that you don’t need to be a one-dimensional robot whose primary function is to succeed and do nothing else.
The aforementioned Wale begins his campaign in Gold Coast on Sunday morning UK time in the 1km time trial and he stated in the lead-up to the Games that he will not be satisfied with anything less than a silver medal.
Whether he fulfils his ambition or not remains to be seen but if he does, there will be few who have worked harder than Wale for
a spot on the podium. And he would be a supreme example to every aspiring athlete
that success does not necessarily have to be accompanied by full-time training and buckets of money.
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