TorchbearerSydney

The only athlete, male or female, to win the 100m, 200m and 400m Olympic titles. An historic achievement from a classy lady.

Interesting- just out of interest, can anyone see any major down sides to picking the next 2 hosts (summer or winter)..there must be risks...the world losing interest in bidding for 8 years, unknowns of a city/country 11 years ahead....

I think India pissed off some mighty powerful people in 2010- and they have long memories.

Qatar Airways are the sponsor of FIFA- this is gonna get ugly!

Off course the MCG is pretty much the biggest cricket stadium (and one of the biggest stadiums) in the world. They are not all that size!

The key word is smaller- all the Gold Coast facilities are much smaller than the Melbourne ones, and set a precedent for a SMALLER Games......whether new, old or recycled. Larger venues, even existing ones have higher overlay, staffing, and ongoing capital costs.

Of course, with only 4.5 years to get it all ready (by the time the decision is made) they may need to pick a London, Melbourne or KL..

I think the Comm Games are better in smaller cities- Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Perth, Brisbane, Edmonton, etc rather than huge global cities like London, Sydney, Delhi etc.. I went to the Melbourne Games, and there was zero atmosphere (despite Melbourne doing an amazing job). Melbourne hosts big events all the time, and the Games just got swamped in a huge metropolis. Smaller cities embrace and celebrate and get swamped by the Games...

The Games will be smaller after the Gold Coast- this is a good thing. NZ for example should be able to afford to host, it is crazy that it can't.

Well at least the Gold Coast (and to some degree Glasgow) are paring the Games down in scale from KL, Delhi and Melbourne ...... I thi k the Gmaes will be a much smaller and manageable size after the Gold Coast example. Interesting Australia / NZ and Pacific Countries look like they will be invited to the Asian Summer Games soon...mmm

They can try with the show biz angle, but the days of The US being the benchmark of spectacle are gone....look at Beijing, Sochi, and every other Chinese event (yes at a huge cost). The world has caught up. Baku even had Lady Gaga...

Yes a repeat Gold Coast/Brisbane Games is obviously a possibility too......very less than ideal.

As strange as it seems I could see an Australian City- Melbourne, Sydney or Adelaide stepping in if needed for 2022......2 Aussie Games in a row would not be ideal for the Commonwealth Movement though

I liked the ceremony, but it did strangely come to a screaming halt when the samba schools arrived.... I would have brought the torch in straight after the last school. that is the torch would have been the last 'float' with the parade introducing it to the stadium...