Glasgow, Scotland was alight with festivities and pageantry last night. It was the opening ceremonies to the Commonwealth Games, an athletic competition whose scale and grandness is bested only by the Olympics.
Though the Commonwealth Games has its roots in colonialism, the Games now is for independent, sovereign states that have roots as a British colony. Most countries (like Canada) still have a strong connection to Britain, something that can be equated to an international friendship.
The Games include 17 sports over the course of 10 days, where over 6,500 athletes compete for their respective homelands. What makes the Commonwealth Games fundamentally different from other sporting events is the inclusion of para-athletes in the main program. Starting at Manchester 2002 and continuing in Scotland today, para-athletes can compete in the same Games — and with the same exposure — as athletes without disabilities.
This stands in stark contrast to the Olympics, which has a separate Paralympic Games that occurs after the “main event.” When asked whether he wants to return to separate Games for para-athletes, President Prince Imran of the Commonwealth Games Federation said a resounding no. “From our point of view,” says Imran, “the reason why Paralympic sports are part of the Games is because, we believe, we want our athletes to feel equal with the able-bodied athletes.”
There are too few people out there who watch the Paralympics. These athletes are the best in the world at what they do, but many in the general public don’t know their names (with the exception of the now notorious Oscar Pistorius). This is a sad omission. Olympians inspire future Olympians. In the same way, para-athletes can inspire those who have been told their whole lives that they can’t do certain things. By keeping para-athletic events in the main program, the Commonwealth Games is living up to its values, specifically one: equality. Maybe it’s time the Olympics choose to live up to that value as well.
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