The Commonwealth Games is the right event for Australia at the right time
Related Story: Who will provide the Commonwealth Games' Cathy Freeman Moment?
Hands up if you were preparing to make fun of Gold Coast 2018?
Who was ready to mock an event that had become quaintly anachronistic now we can watch the best of international sport 24/7? To make unflattering comparisons with the times recorded in "big events"? To poke fun at the lawn bowls because, well, it's just curling on grass really, isn't it?
And then something happened. It involved some cricketers. And a little piece of sandpaper. And, well, let's not talk about that.
Instead let's acknowledge that, even for those of us who wondered if there was a still a place for the old Empire Games on a crowded sporting calendar, this version has been, for Australians particularly, the right event at the right time.
Top shelf performances, but better sportsmanship
It is not just that the standard of the competition has in some events exceeded expectation. Starting on day one when world records were broken in the women's 4×100 metre freestyle relay and the men's team pursuit cycling.
It is not just that the Australians athletes have been alchemists. As the routinely jingoistic commentators sing the praises of a brave Aussie finishing seventh in an outside lane while ignoring the winner, the success of Gold Coast 2018 has sometimes been despite the local victories.
Rather than medal tallies, these Commonwealth Games have been a triumph for a seemingly hokey old adage now often disproven and discredited in a world or sport dominated by process-oriented coaching, elite sports science and corporate ambition: It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.
How have they played these Commonwealth Games? For the most part, beautifully.
After the withdrawal of hurdler Sally Pearson, I wondered in this space which athlete would produce the "Cathy Freeman Moment"; the signature performance that encapsulated the entire event.
It turns out the moments that mark these Commonwealth Games have been about joy, exhilaration, and — yes, another tired old sentiment — the sportsmanship of the competitors, as much as the result of an epic sporting triumph.
Most joyous were the Malawi netballers dancing and frolicking after their momentous victory over New Zealand. An expression of joy and freedom that explained their victory over a taut, frustrated opponent whose ability no longer seems to match its ambition.
The exemplars of sporting values were the three Australian runners who waited at the finish line after the women's 10,000 metres for the final competitor from Lesotho to cross the line. Not one of them gave her a send-off.
The spirit of competition was characterised by Kurt Fearnley in the 1500 metres wheelchair event. You know a competitor is at the limits when you can feel his pain. You could feel Fearnley's arms burn as he chased Canadian gold medallist Alexandre Dupont to the line.
Incidentally, Fearnley and the other athletes with disabilities mocked the sentiments of the late Arthur Tunstall, the Commonwealth Games heavyweight who suggested the sight of disabled competitors had upset other athletes.
The integration of events not only gives the Commonwealth Games a point of difference, it provides both elite entertainment and a perspective that seems to resonate in the attitude of the athletes and the crowd.
Brother and sister moments have been heartwarming
If the Commonwealth Games is very much the little sibling of the Olympics, then it was appropriate a little brother and a little sister provided two of the most memorable moments on the Gold Coast.
Despite winning a world championship, Bronte Campbell has been the Jan Brady of swimming. Instead of "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia", all she hears is "Cate, Cate, Cate".
So when Campbell mowed down her sister in the 100 metres freestyle final, an event Cate wanted more desperately than the sisters might once have wanted the last Tim Tam in the packet, she struck a blow for kid sisters everywhere.
Then they embraced because, well, they're sisters.
Brandon Starc has been known as "Mitchell's little brother", Alyssa Healy's brother-in-law or, by Game of Thrones viewers, the Three Eyed Raven. Then he won the men's high jump and for a precious evening had his brother's fame, if not his fortune.
But beyond his soaring leaps, it was Starc's reaction when invited by the trackside interviewer to talk about the sacrifices he had made to win gold that endeared him most.
"I wouldn't say sacrifices, I'd say choices," he replied, dismissing the self-pity of those athletes who consider their talent a hardship.
Low moments at a minimum
As with every big event there has been jarring moments. None more so than Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull opportunistically embedding himself with the Australian swim team, only to reveal he doesn't know the words to "You're the Voice". Not a great start to that 31st opinion poll.
And, as Oscar Wilde might have said, to lose one Cameroon athlete may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose five looks like carelessness.
But perhaps the best measure of these joyous Games is that in Rio, Australia's chef de mission Kitty Chiller spent more time in front of camera trying to explain away scandal and crisis than an NRL executive.
Gold Coast chef de mission Steve Moneghetti has been happily anonymous — although you say that with heart in mouth as the first of the celebratory bar fights break out.
Otherwise these Commonwealth Games have been blessed by great performances, great moments, great sportsmanship and, most of all, great timing.
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