Former Olympian Usain Bolt served as a DJ at the Gold Coast CWG closing ceremony on Sunday.GETTY IMAGES
The Gold Coast hosted a "truly memorable Commonwealth Games, among the greatest ever staged -- impressively well-supported, a spectacular showcase for the city and, best of all, aglow with smiles," according to Wayne Smith of THE AUSTRALIAN. Inevitably, too, the success of the Gold Coast Games "has breathed renewed vigour into the bid by Brisbane and its surrounding councils to stage the 2032 Olympic Games." With all the added infrastructure the Gold Coast can bring to that bid -- "not to mention the massive accommodation base" -- there is "absolutely no reason why that regional approach should not sing" to the IOC. One of Australia's "great selling points to the IOC is its reputation of delivering magnificent, safe Games." The Sydney 2000 Games were rated "the greatest Olympics" by former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, "for good reason, and that same know-how and can-do flowed into the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games." The Gold Coast Games have "enhanced and enriched that reputation" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 4/16).
