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This article discusses the 2023 (NatWest) Island Games in Guernsey, the latest iteration of a sporting tournament held every two years in Atlantic Rim polities since 1985. The event's participants include UK local authorities, crown dependencies, and British overseas territories. Significantly, non-British and non-Commonwealth polities such as the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland also take part, thus allowing UK and Commonwealth jurisdictions a means of performing national identity and diplomacy alongside non-Commonwealth polities. The author explores the potential and limits of this in an era where the Commonwealth (formerly British Empire) Games is struggling for survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering community-based benefits is oftentimes cited to justify the high costs associated with hosting large-scale events. The current research is embedded in positive psychology to examine how an event impacts host community members' PERMA domains, reflected through positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Adopting a longitudinal approach, the authors interviewed 15 host community members before and after a large-scale sport event to determine if and how the event impacted their well-being. The findings uncovered evidence that the event activated positive emotions, relationships, and meaning across both phases, and evidence of accomplishment within the postevent phase. The findings contribute to the knowledge by examining the links between large-scale sport events and well-being throughout the event lifecycle. This research forwards implications for event bidding committees, event organizers, and host community officials to maximize community well-being through hosting large-scale events and to help justify associated expenses from a social–psychological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the participation of Indian females in international sports over time. Despite representing about half of India's population, female participation in sports, particularly at the international level, has been lower than desired. However, female athletes have achieved significant success in international competitions. The study analyzes the participation and achievements of Indian females in the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and Olympic Games. At the Rio Olympics in 2016, India had 120 participants, with 54 males and 66 females, making female representation 45%. At the Tokyo Olympics 2020, women made up 53 of the 121 participants, securing 3 out of India's 7 medals (approximately 43%), including one silver and two bronze. The Tokyo Paralympics 2020 was India's most successful, with 19 medals (5 – gold, 8 – silver, and 6 – bronze). Female athletes also excelled, with Bhavina Patel winning India's first Paralympic medal in table tennis, and shooter Avani Lekhara becoming the first Indian woman to win a gold medal and multiple medals in the Paralympics. The analysis shows that sports like archery and badminton have higher female participation, while athletics, golf, shooting, and wrestling have more male participants. There is no female representation in judo, rowing, and boxing, and no male representation in gymnastics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined differences in the Seven Network's primetime coverage of male and female athletes who participated at the 2018 Commonwealth Games that were held in Australia. Over 31 hours of total coverage was analyzed for clock-time, name mentions, and the descriptions of athletes by announcers divided by biological sex. Results found that male athletes received the bulk of the clock time and were featured more in two of the three most-telecasted sports: swimming and track cycling. However, there were few other significant results in the word for word descriptors of success, failure, physicality, and personality, which indicates that the announcers on the Seven Network provided a relatively balanced depiction of athletes. Theoretical and practical implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored how nationalism unfolded within the Australian broadcast of the 2018 Commonwealth Games that were held on the Gold Coast, Australia. Applying social-categorization theory, over 31 hours of the total coverage was content analyzed for name mentions, description of success or failure, and personality and physicality of the athletes. Results of this study underscore large differences in the amount of commentary that was provided to Australians and non-Australians during the broadcasts, with Australians being mentioned more than non-Australian athletes. As Australia performed well at the Commonwealth Games, Australians featured highly on both the top most-mentioned athletes list and the overall percentage of name mentions also favored Australians. The Seven Network emphasized Australian athletes to its viewers, as Australian viewers would share many of the group characteristics with athletes who were featured on television. This study contributes to the literature by uncovering how in-group members were portrayed in the Australian sports context while also providing insight into how consumers' media consumption could potentially affect how the network broadcasts the Commonwealth Games from a nationally partisan perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research examined spatiality of The Village during the Commonwealth Games XXI. Central to the research is the perspective of the parasport athlete. By foregrounding this perspective, new understandings of the geography of sporting spaces become possible. The integrated nature of the Games establishes The Village as a significant space to consider spatiality and disability. Ethnographic methodology was utilized. The first author, a veteran of many Paralympic Games, brought an "insider" perspective. Thematic analysis was conducted, and three themes, such as language informs space, hypervisibility of the body, and indoor versus outdoor spaces are presented as an ethnographic vignette. Inaccessible construction and hypervisibility of the body in certain spaces impacted athlete experience. The Village Pub and pools were examples of inhospitable spaces for athletes. The language of Games personnel significantly affected athlete participation in Village life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The core temperature responses during exercise and effects of different cooling strategies on endurance performance under heat stress have been investigated in recreational athletes. This investigation aimed to determine peak rectal temperatures during elite racewalking competitions and to detail any cooling strategies used. Methods: Rectal temperature was measured in 14 heat-adapted elite/preelite race walkers (9 females) via a telemetric capsule across 4 outdoor events, including the 2018 Commonwealth Games (race 1: 20 km, 25°C, 74% relative humidity [RH], n = 2) and 3 International Association of Athletics Federations-sanctioned 10-km events (race 2: 19°C, 34% RH, n = 2; race 3: 29°C, 47% RH, n = 14; and race 4: 23°C, 72% RH, n = 11). All athletes completed race 3, and a subsample completed the other events. Their use of cooling strategies and symptoms of heat illness were determined. Results: Peak rectal temperatures >40°C were observed in all events. The highest rectal temperature observed during an event was 41.2°C. These high rectal temperatures were observed without concomitant heat illness, with the exception of cramping in one athlete during race 1. The rectal temperatures tended to reach a steady state in the second half of the 20-km event, but no steady state was observed in the 10-km events. The athletes used cooling strategies in race 1 only, implementing different combinations of cold-water immersion, ice-slurry ingestion, ice-towel application, ice-vest application, and facial water spraying. Conclusions: Elite/preelite race walkers experience rectal temperatures >40°C during competition despite only moderate-warm conditions, and even when precooling and midcooling strategies are applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resident support is critical for the successful hosting of major sport events and is closely linked to event impact perceptions. This study investigated determinants of support for a major sport event. The key independent variables were perceived event-related personal impacts and perceived event-related community impacts. Residents (n = 603) of two potential Commonwealth Games host cities in New Zealand were asked about their support for the event. Event impact perceptions (costs and benefits) across personal and community dimensions were measured. The triple bottom line approach complements social exchange theory and social representations theory to underpin this study. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyse the relationship between impacts and event support. Ordinal logistic regression was used to analyse the relationship between the levels of the event impacts (i.e. personal and community) and event support. Paired sample t-tests were used to explore difference between personal and community quality of life perceptions based on each of the event impacts. Overall, residents were supportive of bidding for the Commonwealth Games and various event impact perceptions are related. Based on Social Representations Theory, residents likely view the positive benefits of hosting a major event of this type as outweighing the negative. Several significant impacts emerged – both positive and negative. Positive impacts (pride) were perceived to have the greatest effect on event support, whereas each of the negative impact perceptions (opportunity cost, justice) were linked to decreased event support. The results of this study provide important insights on community member perceptions of major sport events. The tendency of community members to focus on negatives could be counteracted with targeted communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]