Following a long, gradual slide towards irrelevance, things had been looking up lately for the Commonwealth Games – the Olympics-lite multi-sport competition for British colonies past and present.
The 2022 edition in Birmingham had been a hit, among fans and athletes alike. The Games Federation had increasingly sought to grapple with its challenging past, a complex legacy of colonialism that sits uneasily with the celebratory tone of a major sporting event. Unlike the Olympics, which has tried to silence its participants, the Games had even embraced athlete activism.
