Swimmers stick up their hands for SA team ahead of Paris Olympics

While there does seem to be a sliding interest in the quadrennial showpiece, there remains a place in the calendar for the Commonwealth Games.

It’s not a top-tier event in most of the sports which take part, and it’s unclear why it exists at all, but it gives some countries a chance to promote codes which don’t always get a lot of air time, and it provides athletes with a stepping stone to greater things – the most important of which is the Olympic Games.

So regardless of the level of competition – which was really strong in some disciplines and horribly poor in others – as a step along the road, the results of the Commonwealth spectacle in Birmingham which ends this weekend are important.

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It gives us an idea of where we can set the bar in terms of our expectations for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and it provides some indication of which athletes might be contenders.

It’s hardly an exact science. There were some athletes who didn’t do well but gained valuable experience, and others who weren’t there due to injury, fatigue or Covid.

But what we can take from it is this: Swimming is killing it, and just about everybody else needs to whip themselves into shape.

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We have bagged medals in athletics in Birmingham (thanks partly to para athletes who will turn out at the 2024 Paralympics) and some other smaller codes led by breakthrough results by judokas.

The Blitzboks were absolutely superb and the men’s hockey team also delivered, but the rest of the squad did not come to the party in team sports.

And while swimming raked in 11 medals (including four gold) spearheaded by teenagers Pieter Coetze and Lara van Niekerk, by Friday afternoon their haul was equal to the number secured by all other codes combined.

In athletics, we can still hope the nation’s elite stars come to the party, led by consistent performer Akani Simbine who stepped on the podium once again in Birmingham, and there is some promise both on the track and in the field.

But after securing 14 medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games (and going on to miss the podium entirely at the Tokyo Olympics last year) athletics was unlikely to reach double figures this week, which is rather alarming for a sport which has traditionally been one of our best.

Of course, there are still two years to go and a lot can happen, but if the results in Birmingham are anything to go by, the Paris Games will be all about the pool.