Victoria marks 30 years since playing host to Commonwealth Games

Victoria’s sporting community is marking 30 years since the B.C. capital hosted the Commonwealth Games.

The games opened Aug. 18, 1994, to a packed Centennial Stadium.

Three decades later, the legacy lives on, and organizers gathered in Victoria on Thursday to celebrate the games’ ongoing impact on Vancouver Island.

“Which is really to leverage the strengths of the region, and provide opportunities for coaches and athletes,” said 94 Forward president John MacMillan.

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Thanks to the legacy of the games, Victoria is now home to Olympic and Paralympic training facilities. This year, it’s hosted some 160 Canadian athletes training in sports ranging from skateboarding to boxing to diving and athletics.

To mark the milestone anniversary, the Pacific Institute for Sport Education, a non-profit that grew out of the ’94 games, announced it is continuing to build on the legacy with an expansion of programming for those 13 to 18 years old.

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“The time to reach more teens is now, so we are excited to introduce our ‘gift of potential’ program,” said PISE board member Stephen Chang.

Just 10 per cent of youth in that age group meet Canada’s recommended guidelines for physical activity, averaging instead four hours of screen time per day.

“Finding ways of getting students engaged in athletics and in programs and on teams is a really important part of keeping students healthy and happy,” said Sean Hayes, principal at the South Island Distance Education School.

“Young people are going to be the ones who are going to be our future Olympians and our future Commonwealth Games participants.”

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Last year, the school took on the work of providing education to young elite athletes attending the Canadian Sports School, who split their time between training and high school.

Whether or not those future competitors get to compete here at home remains a question.

B.C. put in a bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but the province was not in a financial position to support the requested $400 million in funding.

It later took itself out of the running for the 2026 event as well.

“It may be that organizing committees and nations perhaps need to rethink how these games are pulled off … to help share the costs and also help share the legacy afterwards,” said Susan Brice, who sat on the post-1994 games board that established PISE.

But like the athletes that train here, no one is giving up, knowing Victorians are game for anything.

“Never say never,” Brice said.