Birmingham 2022: How the Commonwealth Games were born

Written by Sriram VeeraUpdated: July 24, 2022 7:19:23 pm

The great irony about the Commonwealth Games is that Britain nearly didn’t participate in the first-ever edition, called the British Empire Games, in 1930. Now, its existence itself is an irony in the post-colonial world of 2022, with a stale stench of a relic about it.

But the story of its origin is a fascinating tale of perceived American arrogance; one man’s, a Canadian’s, hurt that transformed it into a grand vision; persistence during the Great Depression; jugaad; grace; and pride.

It was all kickstarted by a sports journalist but before we get to that remarkable man, the Canadian scribe and athletics coach Melville Marks Robinson (popularly known as Bobby Robinson), let’s play potential scenes from the trailer if a movie was ever made on the Games.

Read |The USA – the former colony not a part of the CWG

Perhaps, three scenes might play out. An overhead drone shot might whizz over a statue in Vancouver that captures the dramatic moment from the 1954 Games, famously known as The Miracle Mile, when the leader John Landy looked over his left shoulder at the same instant when Roger Bannister overtook him on his right, just a few yards out from the finish. Both finished under 4 minutes, once thought improbable. A photographer, Charlie Warner, who instinctively positioned himself at that exact spot to capture one of sport’s great pictures, would become a legend. A statue based on that photo still stands in Vancouver. Landy would mine into biblical myths to say, “When Lot’s wife looked back, she was turned into a pillar of salt. When I looked back, I was turned into a pillar of bronze!” Incidentally, it was the first race that had two athletes finish the mile-run under four minutes.

The Queen’s Baton Relay visits the North East!#QBR2022 enjoyed two amazing days travelling through the North East, take a look at some of the highlights here. pic.twitter.com/LSVhGdHrgQ

— Birmingham 2022 (@birminghamcg22) July 17, 2022

The second scene could well be a gruesome sight. A grim close-up of bare-chested high-jumper Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Nigeria’s first international sporting hero at the 1954 Olympics, facing a death squad.

After quitting sport, he co-led a military coup and according to the official version though disputed, killed the country’s first prime minister, then tried to end a civil war, but would die, shot dead at close range.

With his head slumped to his chest, with hundreds of hysterical watchers shouting ‘shoot them, shoot them’, Ifeajuna reportedly kept muttering that his death would not stop his fear that the federal troops would enter the city of Enugu, and they should still fight for a ceasefire. He was shot, and he was right, in a couple of hours, the federal troops had invaded, and his name, till date, remains controversial in Nigeria.

The third, at least for the Indian release of the movie, could be a visual of a man driving an ambulance during the Second World War in the UK. A close-up would reveal him to be wrestler Rashid Anwar, who won India’s first medal in the event, a bronze at the 1934 Games, the first time India participated. A railways worker from Lucknow, and known for his ‘swinging Boston Crab move’, he shifted to the UK after the 1936 Olympics, wrestling professionally and died at Camden, London in 1983, a few months before India would win the cricket World Cup in that city.

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But without Bobby Robinson and his annoyance at ‘American arrogance’, none of this would have happened.

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Bobby’s annoyance began at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Robinson was covering the Games as a journalist for Hamilton Spectator from the city in Canada which would subsequently host the first British Empire Games. He had served in the First World War, was the manager of the national athletics team, and was known as an ‘aggressive campaigner of agriculture’ in Canada where he fought for the rights of individual vegetable and fruits sellers against the price-cuts enforced by wholesale buyers.

Robinson had his reasons to be frustrated with the Americans at the 1928 Olympics where Canada even lodged an official complaint. When Canada’s great runner Percy Williams, who would decades later blow his own head with a shotgun, received his 100m medal, they didn’t have the Canadian flag.

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Then, the Americans were allowed to train on the track but the Canadians weren’t. A disputed judges’ decision in the women’s 100m that went in the favour of an American when the Canadians thought there was no doubt that their lady had won it. And to top it all off, a direct insult by Avery Brundage, the then influential American in the Olympic movement, to a Canadian team official. All hell broke loose.

🎥Birmingham: A Commonwealth City

Keep your eyes peeled next week as we bring you a special four-part series celebrating the diversity and history of Birmingham, with the city gearing up to host the Commonwealth Games.#B2022 | #CommonwealthSportpic.twitter.com/OEzR32SmBa

— Birmingham 2022 (@birminghamcg22) July 17, 2022

In his delightful book ‘The Commonwealth Games: Extraordinary Stories Behind the Medals’, Brian Oliver notes that the newspaper Toronto Star wrote of ‘serious trouble brewing between the Canadian and US teams, between the Canadian representatives and the IOC’. At one point, Robinson vented his anger at Sigfrid Edstrom, the IOC official who would bridge the presidency between Henri de Baillet-Latour and Brundage. “We know the Canadians are getting the run-around here and we don’t like it!”.

Not long after, a more serious fallout occurred between the two countries. With the economy crumbling during the Great Depression, America would announce tariffs on Canadian goods, triggering a trade war and strengthening Canada’s ties with the Empire.

A loyalist to the Union Flag, Robinson decided enough was enough. Made aware of the Englishman J Astley Cooper’s unexecuted plan to stage a ‘Pan-Britannic Festival’ of culture and sport in the 1890s, Robinson decided the time was ripe to put that into action.

Britain too needed it at that point. As sports historian Katharine Moore put it: ‘Political domination in the world by Great Britain was a rapidly fading memory and it was no longer the premier sporting power either. The Empire needed the Games in 1930 to reconfirm and redefine its unity. They could be seen as one step towards re-establishing its sagging prestige … as the various Empire countries matured and blossomed in their own right.’

With economies in a downward spiral everywhere, funding proved to be an issue. Robinson asked the leaders of host city Hamilton for $25000 to run the Games and a whopping $160,000 to construct a stadium. Things turned worse when the American stock market crashed.

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Other countries began to drag their feet. Robinson offered $5000 to coax Australia to send a team, and similar funds were given to a few other countries like New Zealand who arrived in the steamer “Aorangi’, picking up the Australians on the way. Scotland’s travel expenses were paid by Scottish singer and comedian Henry Lauder.

Eight countries were roped in with travel subsidies but strangely, Britain was unmoved. They were worried on two fronts: finance and the potential of the Empire Games overshadowing the Olympics. Robinson shipped himself to England to persuade them and Britain was in, raising 8000 pounds through a public appeal.

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In his newspaper The Hamilton Spectator, Robinson ran a plea to the patriotic hearts of the citizens. A public notice ran thus: “… Patronage of the Games should be considered in the light of a duty. To be pitied indeed is the man who is lackadaisical in his attitude towards this splendid venture. The fire of patriotism is not in him.”

All the track events were sold out as people heeded the call, shelling out 35 cents for boxing matches to $5 for a pass to all track events. Nearly 20,000 turned out for the opening ceremony. Over a lakh watched the rowing events. The Games was a box-office hit.

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The 1930 Games was officially thrown open by Canada’s Governor-General Viscount Willingdon, who said, “The greatness of the Empire is owing to the fact every citizen has inborn in him the love of games and sports.”

Perhaps, so. Every citizen has also an inborn desire for freedom. A year later, Willingdon would be sent to India as the Viceroy, and would come to be known as the man who jailed Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian nationalists during the Salt Satyagraha. A pinch of salt that rocked the Empire.

Robinson introduced the concept of medal ceremonies on a tiered podium, an athletes village (over a dozen athletes were put up in a room, at a school), used volunteers to run the Games, and issued travel grants for athletes. None of these existed at the Olympics until then, and all of them would be copied in its later editions.

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Perhaps, the best tribute to Robinson’s desire came a few years back in 2017 when Donald Trump reportedly showed interest in the British proposal to join the Commonwealth as an “associate”. The Games that started due to perceived American arrogance by a Canadian and which now feels like a relic of the past could well have an American standing on a Commonwealth podium. The irony is blowing in the wind.

First published on: 18-07-2022 at 07:44:22 am Next Story

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