Commonwealth Games of 1978

The Event An international sports competition held in 1978 in Canada, the third time they had taken place there

Date August 3-12, 1978

Place Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Canada was fortunate to field both the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal and the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton two years later. Edmonton’s success in running a well-organized games helped compensate for the heavy criticism received by the Montreal organizers.

The Commonwealth Games were begun in 1930 as the British Empire Games; they were renamed the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, and finally the Commonwealth Games in 1978. The competition is held every four years, at the mid-point between Olympic Games. The Commonwealth Games are on a smaller scale than the Olympics, and standards are somewhat lower. For example, of the 613 medals awarded at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, only 37 went to Commonwealth athletes. Thirteen sports were represented at Edmonton, as opposed to twenty-one at Montreal. The Commonwealth Games are known as “the friendly games.” Certainly, there were few boycotts of nations in 1978 (only Uganda and Nigeria), as opposed to the twenty-two African nations that boycotted the Montreal Olympics. Moreover, there were no accusations of financial mismanagement as there had been in 1976.

Overview

In 1972, Edmonton put in an imaginative bid to host the Games to the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly. Despite its inexperience at holding an international sports event, the city was awarded the 1978 games. A new 42,000-seat stadium, the third largest in Canada, was built at a cost of $42 million. In fact, it was still being prepared the night before the opening ceremonies. A new Commonwealth Pool was also built. Other events were held in Coronation Park (bowls) and the Edmonton Gardens (boxing).

A record forty-six nations sent a total of 1,405 athletes and 504 officials, most of whom participated in the opening of the games for the first time by Queen Elizabeth II. She had also opened the Montreal Olympics. She gave her address in English and French to a packed stadium. The opening pageant of music and dance depicted the history of Canada from its native origins through its various strands of immigration and settlement. A baton had been dispatched from the queen’s London residence, Buckingham Palace, a week earlier. In its last leg, it was carried by Diane Konihowski, the Canadian pentathlon champion often known as the “golden girl of Canadian athletics.” The queen and members of the royal family visited various events before continuing their official tour of the country.

The sports consisted of athletics, badminton, boxing, gymnastics, lawn bowls, shooting, swimming and diving, weightlifting, and wrestling. Several events were eagerly anticipated. In athletics, the struggle in the 5,000-meter men’s race between Brendan Foster of England and Henry Rono of Kenya was won by Rono, though Foster went on to win the 10,000 meters, thus becoming the first Commonwealth athlete to win medals in three separate distances. Also anticipated was Konihowski’s performance in the pentathlon, which she won with a Games’ record. In the swimming events, the Canadian Graham Smith was expected to be challenged by Duncan Goodhew of England in the breaststroke. Smith won both 100 meters and 200 meters, but by the smallest possible margin, as did the Canadian team in the 4 × 100 meters men’s medley.

The searing summer heat and altitude of more than 2,000 feet worked against fast times, and no world records were broken. However, there were some outstanding performances. In athletics, Don Quarrie of Jamaica added a further gold medal to his tally of Olympic gold and two Commonwealth Games golds in the 100 meters. Rono, the world-record holder in the 3,000 meters steeplechase, added a gold to his 5,000-meter one. A twenty-year-old Englishman, Daley Thompson, won the decathlon with a Games record and the second-highest score ever. In bowls, which is not an Olympic sport, David Bryant of England won his fourth successive gold. In boxing, a young unknown, Barry McGuigan from Northern Ireland, won gold in the bantamweight division; later he became world champion. Graham Smith’s six gold medals in swimming was another Games record. However, Canada was denied its expected golds by a young Englishman, Chris Snode, who won both 3-meter and 10-meter events. Another young English swimmer, fifteen-year-old Sharron Davies won golds in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley, while the veteran swimmer Tracey Wickham of Australia picked up two golds, two silvers, and a bronze.

Canadian Achievements

In previous games, three countries had dominated: Canada, England, and Australia. This pattern continued, but for the first time ever, Canada topped the medals table (despite an English surge on the last day) with forty-five gold, thirty-one silver, and thirty-three bronze medals. Fervent home crowd support helped the Canadian athletes. However, Canadians had not done particularly well in Montreal, winning no golds and only eleven medals in total.

Canadian teams were particularly strong in the field events: cycling, where Jocelyn Lovell won three golds; gymnastics, where Canada won all four golds; and shooting, where Jules Sobrian added a gold to the one that he had gained at the 1974 Games in Auckland, New Zealand, setting a new Games record for the rapid-fire pistol event. Canada did very well in men’s swimming; in women’s diving, where Canadian divers won five out of six medals; and lastly in wrestling, where Canadians won gold or silver in all but one division.

In several events, Canada won all three medals, such as the men’s high jump, women’s all-round gymnastics, and women’s springboard diving. However, Canadian hopes for a marathon gold were dashed by a little-known Tanzanian, Gidamis Shahanga, and Jerome Drayton had to settle for silver.

Impact

The main impact of the Commonwealth Games of 1978 was the justification of the Canadian government’s “Game Plan,” whereby a select number of elite athletes had been compensated for expenses, loss of earnings, and equipment up to $3,000 per annum. The Montreal Olympics, where East Germany had done outstandingly well, made that country the model for the Canadian government to follow. By contrast, Australians bemoaned their country’s continuing decline in athletics. Canada was, in fact, the first Western country to engage in helping its athletes so systematically.

The Games themselves have continued to grow, proving that a worldwide games could be held in a friendly spirit of cooperation unmarked by politics.

Bibliography

Commonwealth Games Federation. www.common wealthgames.com. The official Web site of the Commonwealth Games.

The Times (London). August 1-14, 1978. News and sports reports. A full day-by-day account of all the events.