Commonwealth Games heading back to Victoria 20 years later

It will be the third Australian Games of the millennium as, looking beyond Gold Coast 2018, several still-active Guernsey sportspeople will have fond memories of the 2006 event in Melbourne – Victoria’s state capital.

Melbourne Cricket Ground is again the venue of choice for the opening ceremony, but the Victoria 2026 Commonwealth Games will otherwise take the unique approach of spreading sports across multiple regional centres with their own athletes’ villages.

Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews is adamant that this will be ‘a Commonwealth Games like no other’.

‘We promised we wouldn’t be doing a rerun of 2006, as successful as that was,’ he said.

Sixteen sports have already been announced across four different centres – Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Gippsland – with more to follow.

Badminton player Elena Johnson is one of Guernsey’s select few sportspeople fortunate enough to have competed at both Melbourne 2006 and Gold Coast 2018.

Birmingham 2022 will be her sixth Games as a competitor and she expects it to be her last, but she would like to remain involved in 2026 and is optimistic about the location.

‘We can be very confident that Australia will put on an amazing show,’ she said.

‘Melbourne and Gold Coast both ran so smoothly and I feel incredibly lucky to have been part of those Games.’

Johnson remembers Melbourne being a ‘wonderful host city’.

‘We had easy access to the beautiful city and were able to get to other venues to see Guernsey athletes competing in other sports,’ she added.

‘This will be different with events taking place throughout the state. It will be interesting to see how they house athletes.

‘It’s great for the state as a whole as it’s likely to give more people the opportunity to feel part of the Games and to watch events live without having to travel to one city, which can make accommodation difficult to find and very expensive.’

Guernsey shooting veteran Peter Jory called Melbourne 2006 the ‘most lavish Games I have been to’ and is excited to see action return to the same state 20 years on.

‘Victoria is a fantastic location for the 2026 Games, as it’s a very inviting state in Australia with great sporting history,’ he said.

‘The 2006 Melbourne Games was most likely one of if not the best Games I have attended, as the hosts really knew how to lay on a major sporting event. The weather and the venues were all top notch, with excellent planning and administration.

‘The opening ceremony in the Melbourne Cricket Ground will be fantastic as it’s a huge stadium – one thing I remember parading out with the team in 2006 was the number of people in the towering grandstands.

‘Although shooting is not in the initial 16-sport programme, I’m hopeful it could be added with other sports later this year in a final programme yet to be announced.’