Medal Charts at the “Colonial Games”
| Pos | Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Australia | 42 | 32 | 32 | 106 |
| 2 | England | 31 | 34 | 21 | 86 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 13 | 7 | 6 | 26 |
| 4 | Canada | 11 | 16 | 19 | 46 |
| 5 | South Africa | 6 | 5 | 5 | 16 |
| 6 | India | 5 | 5 | 3 | 13 |
| 7 | Scotland | 3 | 8 | 15 | 26 |
| 8 | Wales | 3 | 2 | 8 | 13 |
| 9 | Malaysia | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| 10 | Nigeria | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
| 11 | Cyprus | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| 12 | Uganda | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 13 | Singapore | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 14 | Trinidad & Tobago | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 15 | Samoa | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 16 | Bermuda | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | Northern Ireland | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 18 | Kenya | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 19 | Fiji | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 20 | Mauritius | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 21 | Guernsey | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21= | Jamaica | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21= | Papua New Guinea | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21= | Tanzania | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 21= | The Gambia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 26 | Malta | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 26= | Namibia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 26= | Nauru | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 26= | Sri Lanka | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
I find it all a bit overblown the way our news media get so hyped up about New Zealand athletes, their medal prospects and then medal results from the Commonwealth Games.
Perhaps it has something to do with the media generally reporting on “bad” news and finding it refreshing to have some “good” news to focus on.
I also get it that for the individual athletes it’s about the peak of their sporting careers, pitting themselves against the other athletes and finishing at or near the top of the competition.
But its more than that. We love to see how our athletes “punch well above their weight” on an international stage and this is where it all gets a bit tacky and self-delusional.
Our cyclists have come away with a big haul of medals – but who were they competing against? Which of the countries at the games are able to provide their athletes with $10,000+ bikes to practice and compete on? Which countries have the range of community sports facilities such as pools, athletics grounds, velodromes etc and the big sums of money needed to drive good coaching and participation programmes from primary school age?
I suspect the medal table could be largely constructed by simply arranging the countries in order of their GDP.
Others have called the Commonwealth Games the “Colonial Games” and this is a more accurate description. It’s also where things get a bit more sensitive. The medal chart puts the countries with European colonists at the top (with their colonised populations for the most part underrepresented in the medal stakes) and those countries which were the victims of European colonisation further down.
I can hear some readers grumbling “keep politics out of sport” but needless to say, they have always been inextricably linked as the medal chart shows.
It’s best we just enjoy the sport and not get carried away with medal tallies.
New Zealand and Australia also have just about the highest medal count per capita at the Olympic Games (Summer Games). Norway and Finland also do well. As did Fiji and Bermuda in the last Olympic Games. Bermuda because it has a very low population, one medal puts it at the top of the table.
It is not just per capita income (though that obviously is a factor) it is also because Australia, Finland, Norway and New Zealand have the highest sports participation in the world with a large percentage of the younger population being active in competitive sport.
Also compare China and India. In the Olympics, China is often at the top of medal count whereas India is near the bottom, even in absolute terms, and is certainly at the bottom on a per capita basis. It is not just an economic difference, it is also cultural.
Yes, you can sneer at the Commonwealth, but no nation is forced to join. In fact a number of nations in Africa that were never British colonies have chosen to join in recent years.
Yawn – Now moaning about the Commonwealth Games . .
James Brown Thanks for a welcome wee laugh; I also have much empathy with your ( somewhat strident) comment elsewhere about not being inclined to vote – I think it was you.
No problem Snow White and yes it was me.
Oh booo you bitter old man. Given the amount Team GB pump into their cycling program our results are nothing short of extraordinary. I do note you aren’t writing about the gradual implementation of apartheid in New Zealand as we have just seen with this governments latest legislative outrage for ECAN. Didn’t you protest against race based governance at one stage?
I think you will find that Minto is still protesting against apartheid, see Palestine!
Oh, thank you. As a non-follower of New Zealand MSM I had no idea that they are reporting on the Commonwealth Games, but why not ? The UK media are, and it’s clearly a great bonding event, so why not ? But the UK media are not referring to the games as “ colonial”, and nor should anybody wanting a united global or local community when “colonial” is now a dirty word used mainly to disparage white people.
Clearly it should have been headed Minto attacks ‘sacred cow’
Sport, like sex, is something you do, not something you watch other people doing.
Not moaning about ‘the bankers’ today Countryboy?
C B slavery was in NZ long before the British arrives as was cannibalism. The country was going to go to a western country at some time so the Maori were lucky the British came first as French and German colonies were far harder on the natives than Britain was . There was a power imbalance but that is history repeating itself as the UK was overrun by invaders for many years. Romans Viking Normans all came saw and conquered . The locals were initially treated bady but slowly through marriage the invader and the conquered became one.
“The locals were initially treated bady but slowly through marriage the invader and the conquered became one”.
Just as we were here until the intentional classification of literally everything by ‘race’ / ‘positive’ discrimination etc.
So Trev Maori should be grateful it was the Brits. OMG have you read the history.
Bastards that’s what they were.
Just be positive and not snarkey eh! Praise the athletes, doing their best at what they feel gifted in. And what medal would you moaners like to turn down and what for?
It gives the world a chance to come together and not be killing each other. A nice change for Sunday tv watching.
That’s a great moustache in the image John M. Why don’t you have a go at one like that for upcoming Movember?
Commonwealth games??
More like DEAD british empire games.
Sport is an easy resort for media to fill empty media space.
YAAAAWn.
BORING!