Commonwealth
Games 2002:
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2002 Commonwealth Games The Beginning
by Joe and Dan Kneipp, July 27 2002

[last update was 31-jul-02 ]

Player Perspective
with

Joe and Dan Kneipp

Commonwealth Games – The Beginning.
The Commonwealth Games occur every four years. For eligible athletes it represents one of the absolute pinnacles of the sport. For many sports, particularly athletics the Games is only rivaled by the Olympics in prestige.

Commonwealth Games Stadium, Manchester (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

Squash is a relative newcomer to the event, but its importance cannot be understated. The Aussie squash team arrived at Manchester the day before the opening ceremony, along with most of the 5000 other competitors. Just walking around the village helped me realise the significance of the event and the calibre of the athletes sharing the competition with us. People you have only previously seen on sports reports are suddenly sharing meals with you. It creates an atmosphere and camaraderie that just doesn’t happen at squash events partly because of the size difference.

Most squash tournaments are individual events. While there’s usually a friendship between players of the same country, it’s still an individual event – everything is based on how you do personally. To emphasise this seclusion all of your interactions around a squash tournament include your opposition and rivals. You stay in the same hotel, eat in the same restaurant and socialise together. It can be painful to lose a match and then share a ride from the courts to the hotel with the very person who has just knocked you out of the tournament.

None of this is the case at the Commonwealth Games where the main significance is the colour of your shirt and the flag on your back. You’re competing for you country and against other countries.

Consider the size of the Aussie team at 520 members, and you get an idea of what I’m talking about. 73 nations in the games, 5000 or so athletes and over a tenth of them are from Australia, the nation with the distinction of the greatest success in this tournament. Suddenly the importance of succeeding for your team become even more evident.

Security is understandably very tight. When we first arrived at the venue we endured sniffer dogs, X-ray machines and the ever-present airport rectangle that beeps at you. The beep machine (it’s technical name) has provided constant amusement and plenty of laughter for the squash team. Our coaches Geoff Hunt and Roger Flynn are continually being asked to take off more and more clothes to stop the beeping and locate the metal object that they’re obviously trying to sneak into the village (knife? gun? machete?).

Both ex-players have titanium hips and all of the searching and stripping in the world won’t stop the beeping. But it will continue to amuse us. When the day of the opening ceremony arrived there was a great buzz in the air with so many athletes walking around with such anticipation and expectation.

Because of a schedule overlap of the swimming and diving (they need to drain the diving pool and cover the area with seating for the swimming) the diving begun before the opening ceremony. Athletes already receiving medals (Aussie gold!) was even more food for thought. The Village is about 15 minutes away from the main stadium and the squash centre, which are beside each other. The Aussie team looked like a sea of beige suits as we eventually filled up eleven buses.

The length of the short bus trip was lined with spectators all cheering and waving. Once we arrived with the other nations it felt like we were a small part of a psychedelic land of colour. Every country was decked out in weird and magnificance colours, with the African nations leading the way.

Opening Night, Manchester (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

When the time came teams would file into the stadium alphabetically. So to organise everything they split the 73 countries up. Countries A-G went into the squash complex to make sure everything was properly organised and ready to go. Lots of pictures were taken and excited chatter amongst the athletes. The 100 metre heats, hockey and other events began the next morning so obviously some athletes weren’t at the opening ceremony. Most world class athletic venues have two stadiums. A main one, and a much smaller one that is used by the athletes for warming up.

All of the countries (including H-Z now) assembled on the practice track in the order that we would enter the stadium. From here we could hear the celebrations including singing, dancing, lots of fireworks and a jet fly-over, trailing red, white and blue. There was a screen that we could see the ceremony, but the roar of the crowd and the intensity of the moment helped the excitement build and build.

Once Angola was called I realised the big moment had arrived. Australia was to make their entrance. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of my life: the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth games. After entering the stadium we were met by a huge screaming cheering frenzy of people, officials and TV cameras everywhere. People were waving like mad to get the athletes to wave back at them. The atmosphere was hard to describe, but certainly like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.

(Daniel writing now) I am still in Amsterdam, leaving for Manchester in a few days. I watched the opening ceremony on the BBC, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Aussie squad and Joe. Obviously with 5000 athletes filing into a stadium over an hour long period the chances aren’t too good.

Joe sent me a text message saying to look out for him carrying an umbrella to make it easier to see him. It was a clear, warm night so I figured he may use his umbrella as a walking stick and perhaps wave it around to help me spot him. The Aussies entered the stadium and the chance of seeing him seemed miniscule. The BBC had a wide- angle shot as the whole team filed into the stadium.

Then suddenly you can see one lone athlete walking along with a blue umbrella open and held high above his head as if it was pouring rain. Once I realised it wasn’t Mary Poppins the true attention-grabbing geniusness of my brother became evident. The BBC commentators thought he was making a joke of the erratic Manchester weather and had a big laugh.

The camera zoomed in to show Joe and Dave Palmer casually walking along waving and filming. The same footage goes back to Oz so Mum and Dad were very excited to see Joe. Apparently the main news service back home kept replaying the shot throughout their coverage.

Joe called me from in the stadium. Because entrance to the stadium was alphabetical Australia had plenty of time before the other teams arrived. When I spoke to him he had just finished having a dance with Sarah Fitz-Gerald on a podium in the middle of the stadium. (Joe again) After the magic of the first day I was interested to see what the next day would bring.

The Queen found the Squash Enjoyable (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

The Queen of England attended Chris Walker’s first round match against Wayne Prescod of Jamaica. Dave Palmer and I went to watch the Australian Women’s hockey team (World, Olympic and Commonwealth Game champions for about a decade). The Queen thought this was a good idea also and went to see it before she went to watch Chris. After the hockey girls had a comfy win over Scotland Dave and I caught the bus back to the village.

When we arrived athletes and officials were lining both sides of the street in eager anticipation, as the Queen was now visiting the village (I began to wonder if she was following me). She was walking along the line of people occasionally stopping to talk to random athletes. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t one of the biggest surprises of my life that she walked over to us and started chatting (Dave and I were with an Aussie hurdler). I was in the surreal situation of asking myself if I was really chewing the fat with Liz. She asked us what sports we were involved in. I asked her how she had enjoyed watching Chris’ match, she replied

"It seemed a little strange with the glass box but I enjoyed it very much".

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