Commonwealth Games Research Articles

Developing a Public Health Risk Assessment Toolkit for Mass Gatherings and Trialling for an International Multi-Sport Mass Gathering Event

Introduction:Risk assessment for mass gatherings (MGs) is undertaken to enable public health authorities to systematically identify and assess the generic characteristics of an MG, which introduce or enhance particular threats and develop measures to reduce or mitigate these threats. The World Health Organization Collaborating Centres on Mass Gatherings and Global Health Security (WHO CCs) produced a comprehensive guide to MGs called “Public Health for Mass Gatherings: Key Considerations” (KC2). This is being converted into an eLearning resource. A public health risk assessment toolkit is being developed by the WHO CCs to complement and guide organizers in their planning process for the health risks associated with an MG event. Preparations for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (BCG) are underway and it is important to involve a public health element in the planning for the BCG.Aim:To develop a public health risk assessment toolkit for MGs and pilot it as part of the planning process for the BCG.Methods:Based on KC2 principles, methods included developing and finalizing a public health risk assessment toolkit for MGs. This study also piloted the toolkit for the BCG.Results:A toolkit will be developed. Key learning will be documented on how the toolkit can be improved. The pilot will identify the key public health risks for the BCG, and assess how to mitigate them.Discussion:The development of this toolkit will be an innovative contribution to the resources available for those organizing MGs. It will support organizers to conduct risk assessments and thus maximize the potential for health from the event. Piloting the toolkit for the BCG is an opportunity for validating it, and provides valuable learning for its use in future events. It will support the risk assessment process for the BCG and share learning regarding the key risks for this event.

Implementation of Periop Disaster Response Exercise Program at Gold Coast Health

Introduction:With the move into Gold Coast University Hospital, a new disaster plan was developed in 2017. To assess preparedness for the Commonwealth Games (April 2018), a number of mass casualty exercises were conducted, including a large multi-agency exercise with Queensland Police and Ambulance Services. During this preparation phase, senior clinicians from the perioperative area clarified their sub-plans and developed a novel model of periop response.Aim:This study assesses this model of response and evaluates it within the context of periop disaster exercises.Methods:The periop response model evolved through multi-disciplinary key stakeholder engagement into a defined model of surgical, anesthetic, and periop nursing responses with dedicated roles and parallel communication streams from ED to OR by the respective specialties. Throughout different disaster exercises, this model of response was tested, refined, and evaluated by formal post-exercise debriefs and group meetings.Results:Since May 2017, seven different mass casualty exercises with periop response were performed; firstly, a table-top (EmergoTrainSystem) format was used, which revealed communication and logistical deficiencies. After model refinement, further exercises were accomplished, all within the clinical environment, including movements of mock patients from ED to OR. These exercises generated improvements in communication, coordination, and logistics. Every exercise was also used to test more detailed information, communication, and organizational tasks of the various involved craft groups, such as notification, call-in lists, whiteboard structure, transport facilitation, and many more. Overall, our newly developed periop response model proved to be robust and successful, even with rotating personnel through different roles.Discussion:Apart from the success of the periop response model, other hospital areas (ICU, bed and ward management) became involved. With growing interest and staff turn-over a regular periop disaster response exercise program has now been established. This model of periop response has potential for use in other health systems.

In Community Hands: Memory and the Material Culture Legacy of a Mega Sporting Event: Commemorating the 1982 XII Commonwealth Games in Brisbane

Research on the legacy of mega sporting events often pitches the lasting impact of infrastructure, especially the construction of stadia, against the disruption to and alienation of local communities. In contrast, this paper considers the social and cultural heritage legacy of the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia. It centres on the 30 year anniversary commemoration of the event by the local residential community in which the main stadium is situated. The paper demonstrates how a sporting landscape is not only given meaning by a suburban community, but that the community itself emerges in response to the material culture of the mega event. Significantly this community is comprised of people who may not have been sports fans, and the paper documents a shift within sections of the local community from people who were indifferent or antagonistic to the sporting event, to a community that retrospectively values the Games as part of its heritage. The paper reveals the importance of objects in creating this sense of community through their agency as mementos, provoking nostalgia, and creating living memory. These objects, unlike those in formal museums and archives, are integral to their communities and the personal stories of sporting heritage and legacy.

How elite sport helps to foster and maintain a neoliberal culture: The ‘branding’ of Melbourne, Australia

This article explores the role that elite sport has played in the State Government of Victoria’s (Australia) neoliberal agenda of creating an environment conducive to commercial activity. Adopting an urban entrepreneurial approach of selling the ‘city’ as an attractive place for cross-border investment, the state government has strategically invested public funds into major sporting events in Melbourne. Four specific sporting events were examined: i) construction and redevelopments of ‘Melbourne Park’ to host the Australian Open Tennis Championships; ii) hosting the 2006 Commonwealth Games; iii) acquisition of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix and continued political, corporate and media support for the event; and iv) construction of an urban football stadium. Newspaper reports and parliament transcripts between 1984 and 2014 were collected to highlight issues of contest in the ‘sport city’ in conjunction with a thematic analysis of interviews with influential cultural producers of the ‘sport city’ – most notably state premiers, members of parliament, CEOs of public sports trusts and newspaper journalists. Findings illustrate that the Victorian state has successively re-regulated a neoliberal urban entrepreneurial strategy, often preventing dissident groups from resisting neoliberal activities, and that in Melbourne sport operates as ‘cultural glue’ to establish the logic of neoliberalism in an embodied sense.

Modern Weightlifting and Emerging Communities of Malayan and Singaporean Weightlifters during Pre-Second World War and Post-War British Colonial Rule, 1900s–1959: Competing in the Asian Games, Empire and Commonwealth Games, and Olympic Games

British Malaya consisted the Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca, and Singapore), Federated Malay States (Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang), and the Unfederated Malay States (Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu, and Johore). This study attempts to document the development of weightlifting into two periods. During the first period of the early twentiethcentury the wealthy Straits Chinese community promoted weightlifting in the Penisula. As the Malayan economy grew and produced a working class population, the other Chinese and Malay communities set up clubs to practice weightlifting. The Singapore Amateur Weight Lifting Federation (SAWLF) was founded in 1934 to organize competitions according to the British Amateur Weight Lifting Association (BAWLA) regulations. In 1936 a Chinese weightlifter represented China at the 1936 Olympic Games. The second period occurred after the Japanese occupation (1942–1945). Singapore was separated from the rest of British Malaya in 1946. The Singapore Olympic and Sports Council (SOSC) was established in 1947. The Federation of Malaya Olympic Council was founded in 1953 and Malayan Amateur Weight Lifting Federation (MAWLF) in 1955. The Malayan and Singapore weightlifters competed separately at the Asian Games, Empire and Commonwealth Games, and the Olympic Games. Later, Malaya and Singapore became independent states in 1957 and 1959.

The evaluation of large cycling infrastructure investments in Glasgow using crowdsourced cycle data

The benefits of cycling have been well established for several decades. It can improve public health and make cities more active and environmentally friendly. Due to the significant net benefits, many local governments in Scotland have promoted cycling. Glasgow City Council constructed four significant pieces of cycling infrastructure between 2013 and 2015, partly in preparation for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and partly to encourage cycling more generally. This required substantial capital investment. However, the effectiveness of these big new infrastructure investments has not been well examined, mostly due to data limitations. In this study, we utilised data from the activity tracking app Strava for the years 2013–2016 and fixed effects panel data regression models to examine whether the new cycling infrastructure has increased cycling volumes on these routes. Our results show that three of the infrastructure projects have a positive effect on the monthly total volume of cycling trips made by users of the app, with flows up by around 12% to 18%. Although this result is promising, it needs to be interpreted with care due to the characteristics of the data.

Dissent Dressing: The Colour and Fabric of Political Rage

Dissent Dressing: The Colour and Fabric of Political Rage

In Memoriam: Sir Roger G. Bannister, CH, CBE, MSc, MA, DM, FRCP (1929–2018)

Known first for his achievement as the first man to run a mile in less than 4 minutes, Sir Roger Bannister, who died on March 3, 2018, lived a long and productive life away from athletics. The 4-minute mile, believed at the time to be at the limit of human endurance, was achieved on the Iffley Road cinder track at Oxford in poor weather on May 6, 1954, and recorded in grainy black and white film. The iconic final image showed him straining to the tape at the finish with raincoated, hatted timers, the official timekeepers, clasping stopwatches, one determinedly smoking a pipe. He retired from athletics in the same year after winning the 1,500-meter European and Commonwealth Games Championships. How fast he might have gone had he continued his athletic career is a source of speculation. He described his athletic career in his first book The First Four Minutes (1955) and in his autobiography Twin Tracks (2014). He was a student at Exeter College, Oxford, and then, after a year at Merton College as Demonstrator in Physiology, a clinical student at St Mary's Hospital, London, graduating BM BCh in 1955. He married Moyra Jacobsson in 1955. After House appointments at St Mary's and at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, he trained in cardiology at Hammersmith Hospital and the Brompton Hospital, London. Army service then intervened. He was posted to Aden, where he investigated heat exhaustion and heat-related deaths in unacclimatized British soldiers, leading to a publication in Lancet and a thesis for the DM degree at Oxford University. He trained in neurology at Queen Square and spent a year with Derek Denny-Brown at the Boston City Hospital in 1962. He was appointed as Consultant Physician to the National Hospital, Queen Square, in 1963, and the following year to St Mary's Hospital, London. He continued in these appointments until 1985, when he returned to Oxford as Master of Pembroke College, a role he maintained until 1993.

A Forgotten Picture: Race, Photographs and Cathy Freeman at the Northcote Koori Mural

ABSTRACTA dramatic photograph, published in 1994, depicted Australian athlete Cathy Freeman running at Northcote's Koori Mural in inner-north Melbourne, beneath scenes of Aboriginal elders in chains in the late nineteenth century. Two months later, she famously posed for photographs carrying the Aboriginal flag in a victory lap following her win in the 400 metres at the Commonwealth Games. While the flag photographs remain an iconic image of sport and race in Australia, the Northcote photograph is forgotten. This article explores the history of the Northcote photograph—its background, the image itself, and the aftermath of publication. We analyse the discursive contexts of exposure and elision: unlike the flag pictures, which spoke to the present and to a recognised and saleable discourse (national pride), the Northcote mural image pointed to a more difficult and less palatable discursive relationship with the past (racism, abuse and disenfranchisement).

When global becomes local: Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games international communicable disease surveillance

The 21st Commonwealth Games (the Games) was hosted on the Gold Coast, Australia in April 2018. With a large number of international travellers congregating at the mass gathering, it was important to monitor international communicable disease outbreaks with potential to be imported into Australia. The Australian Government Department of Health (DoH) conducted and reported enhanced international communicable disease surveillance during and surrounding the Games period. Surveillance focused on diseases with higher than normal incidence in Commonwealth countries with potential to be imported through travellers and ability to continue transmission in Australia. Over four months, 27 disease events were identified, monitored and reported to local, state and federal public health authorities, as well as general practitioners and pathologists throughout Queensland. Surveillance provided situational awareness for decision making and risk assessment during the Games. It complemented and informed surveillance of local disease activity during the Games and allowed frontline health professionals to contextualise disease presentations.

Perspectives from a mass gathering deployment - Field Epidemiology Trainees at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games

Perspectives from a mass gathering deployment - Field Epidemiology Trainees at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games

Was Glasgow 2014 inspirational? Exploring the legacy impacts of a mega-sport event via the theorized demonstration and festival effects

The potential legacy of mega-sport events to increase physical activity and sports participation among the host community has been recognized. As part of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014, a longitudinal dataset was collected, focusing on the ‘Active’ legacy domain, which aimed to help the Scottish population become active and lead healthier lifestyles. The study investigated if the event changed behaviours and attitudes towards sport and physical activity among the host community through two theorized legacy pathways: (1) demonstration; and/or (2) festival effect. Results showed that the demonstration and festival effects were relevant to the community but they were largely ineffective in changing attitudes or behaviours, suggesting that, the mechanisms were operative but not effective. It is essential that future mega-sport events implement effective promotional campaigns to engage the host city and implement initiatives alongside the event to increase physical activity and sports participation in the longer term.

Introducing a basic psychological performance demand model for sport and organisations

ABSTRACTThis study presents the development of a basic psychological performance demand model (PDM) for sport and organisations, adopting a process view of performance underpinned by reversal theory (Apter [2001] An introduction to reversal theory. In M. J. Apter (Ed.), Motivational styles in everyday life: A guide to reversal theory (pp. 3-36⁠). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association). Six elite coaches with extensive coaching experience at European, Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games were interviewed. Their interview statements were analysed using a combination of deductive and inductive analysis procedures for qualitative data. In conjunction with the interviewer, coaches developed PDMs for their specific sports. Analysis of interview data and coaches’ specific PDMs identified four main cross-sport themes or fundamental psychological capabilities required for meeting performance demands. These were: Mastery motivation, Decision making, Execution, and Teamship. The PDM offers a starting framework for a new basic performance model that is novel and pragmatic with potential applicability across sports and organisations. The model is useful in its existing form, but needs further testing, extended practical application and reflection by coaches, athletes, and sport psychologists. It has potential for use in other coaching contexts beyond sport, such as business, leadership development, education, and health.

The Use of GIS in Major Sport Events Management; the Host City’s Lessons Learned from Gold Coast 2018, Commonwealth Games

This paper documents the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) in the delivery of recent major sporting events with a specific focus on the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018). It details the process that was undertaken by GC2018 Partner organisations in managing an integrated GIS solution. Governance structures, data sets, information custodianship and implementation timelines are explored to provide a holistic understanding of the GC2018 GIS journey. The paper then explores the challenges that were faced and conversely the recommendations for future Host Cities. Integrated GIS use was a critical element in the success of GC2018 and provided a City legacy in terms of information sharing, governance and broader use of GIS systems. It recognises that whilst GIS was an integral part of the planning and operations of GC2018 significant benefits could be derived by Host Cities by ensuring integration of GIS into Games governance and committing to roles and responsibilities three or 4 years in advance of the event.

Analysis and Selection of a Business Model: the Case of Delphi Subway Transportation Project

This paper examines the conditions of developing an additional line to the Delhi subway in India, in order to facilitate transportation in the city during the Commonwealth Games. The paper is developed through analyzing the business model that delivered the development of the project, examine advantages, disadvantages, results delivered, and proposes what could have done differently in order to minimize risks. This is a case of public and private sector cooperation.

Groundwater treatment by ceramic membranes: pilot tests at the Commonwealth Games Village in Delhi, India

Abstract Ceramic membranes are increasingly gaining popularity in the field of water treatment. High quality, better operability, robustness, ability to work in harsher environments and efficient removal of organic contaminants are just some of the characteristics which are making it an interesting alternative for water treatment facilities worldwide. This paper aims to evaluate the performance of an ultrafiltration (UF) ceramic membrane pilot plant installed in an 1 MGD (million gallons per day) plant in Delhi, to adapt the process and to optimize the operational features, so that it can be suggested as an economical and technical alternative to existing UF polymeric membrane installations in Indian municipal facilities. The investigation is conceptualized with the production of potable water after filtration at a volumetric flow rate of 1.2 m3/h through an UF ceramic membrane having a pore size of 50 nm. The process parameters such as the duration of filtration, flow rate, flux, flocculant concentration, and chemicals were varied to check its adaptability and effectiveness for better performance. Laboratory tests, evaluation of the results and troubleshooting were used to regulate the quality aspects of the study.

Cover Art

Cover ArtA Sydney Phone Booth at Night 1997 Quentin Jones As noted in the essay by Demelza Hall in this issue, this newspaper photograph by Quentin Jones figures significantly in Alexis Wright's "After the Storm," where the character Gibbo, an Indigenous man from a remote community, carries a newspaper clipping of it "like a talisman." I have been working as a professional photographer for over twenty-five years, working for Fairfax Media for publications including the Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend Magazine, and the Sydney Magazine. I have had cucumber sandwiches with Queen Elizabeth II; I have a fossil site named after me at Riversleigh in Queensland (Quentin's Quarry); I have landed on the deck of the USS Independence aircraft carrier; and I have been under the Pacific Ocean in an Australian submarine. In the year 2000, I covered the Sydney Olympic Games, and in 2010, I covered the New Delhi Commonwealth Games. The photography of the telephone box was shot while I was covering a stakeout for the Sydney Morning Herald, in October 1997. I think I was bored and saw the phone boxes and thought it was a nice shot, one that could be used to illustrate a communications story one day. Of course, nowadays, there are very few phone boxes, as most people have mobile phones. I love photography so much that I shoot images every day, because every day, there is something new to cover, new people to meet, new experiences to behold. Life is rarely boring when your work is something that you love. —Quentin Jones [End Page 7] Quentin Jones Photographer Sydney, Australia Copyright © 2020 Wayne State University Press

Garbage as fuel: pursuing incineration to counter stigma in postcolonial urban India

ABSTRACTThis paper explains why local leaders may adopt and promote forms of environmentalism that privilege aesthetic and class-based concerns, displacing environmentalisms of the poor that promote more socially just and sustainable practices. Presenting a case study from Delhi, India, I ask why centralised and mechanised approaches to garbage services, which included incineration or “waste-to-energy,” were promoted over manual recycling systems despite their unproven efficacy and significant expense. I argue that Indian leaders saw incineration as a mechanism for decontaminating garbage, and by association, de-stigmatising the city’s reputation. Transforming a chaotic cluster of materials – garbage – into a singular object for incineration – fuel – allowed Indian bureaucrats and managers, who tend to be upper-caste men, to claim and profit from materials that are recycled by lower-caste and Muslim informal workers. I analyze ethnographic and documentary evidence and find that these motivations became particularly legible during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, when postcolonial desires for international recognition were made explicit.

Governing Major Event Legacy: Case of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

This article explores the emerging importance of planning and governance surrounding the concept of event legacy by focusing on an in-depth case study of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Given the long-term nature of the concept of legacy, the need for planned and thorough pre-, during, and post-Games management is essential if legacy outcomes are to be monitored effectively. Research method employed for this study consist of in-depth interviews (n = 14) with policy makers, organizers, and local community associations who were involved with legacy planning and implementation for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The findings present Glasgow's legacy approach as an advancement in the understanding of legacy governance and planning in relation to critical event management. By designing and implementing legacy governance structures at an early stage, each stakeholder role is established and can be monitored while allowing for some flexibility within the legacy management partnerships. In addition, the notion of a partnership legacy can be seen to have grown from innovative legacy governance structures, such as collaborative working and network creation, put in place by Glasgow in the early stages of legacy planning, which can act as a model of best practice for other major event host destinations.

Sport events, space and the ‘Live City’

Specially-designed, temporary festive spaces designed to accommodate spectators and visitors have become commonplace when hosting major and mega sporting events but to date they have received very little academic attention in the urban policy or planning fields. In this paper I explore the development of a ‘Live City’ concept that organisers in Glasgow operationalised during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Empirically, I draw on fieldwork undertaken before, during and after the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, including documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, and observation of the four managed Live Zones operational during the event.Findings suggest that the concept of the Live City operationalised at G2014 represents a subtle, yet effective, means of further embedding capital accumulation processes in the urban setting. The Live City concept is reflective of a trend toward the staging of atmospheres as an urban policy tool. In effect, event visitors are welcomed to a fantasy city that only ever exists temporarily, staged for the benefit of others' consumption. The Live City is managed and assembled to prioritise affective atmospheres, reimagining the entire city centre as a venue to be experienced, mediated and replicated in the future when other major spectacles are attracted.