Is there a more overrated “championship” than Commonwealth Games?

Sounds like a good meet to muck barn at.

Considering Olli Hoare had to beat Tim Cheriyout, Abel Kipsang, Jake Wightman, Neil Gourley and Josh Kerr to get said gold medal I'd argue it's a great achievement.

Meh, just shoes no one cares imo

I don't recall anyone rating it.

Yawn. Some of the greatest races were at the Commonwealth Games such as the 'Miracle Mile' in 1954 and the 1500m in 1974. It's not the World Championships but it is one of the 4 'majors' for British Athletes: Olympics, World Championships, European Championships are the other 3. The 2022 CGs in Birmingham had packed 35,000 crowds morning and afternoon sessions and put to shame the Eugene WCs in terms of crowds and atmosphere.

yes

Don’t even get me started on how weak Euros are.

Linking a video of McColgan winning proves my point.

it's not overrated if you are an up and coming Brit.

Undoubtedly it isn't what it was back before Worlds existed, much as Euros, Pan Am, etc. etc. aren't as big a deal anymore either. But I don't think anyone overrates the Commonwealth Games either. No one tries to say it's on the level of Worlds or something like that. Can't really speak to other sports but an international meet that pulls in the British nations plus Australia, Canada, Kenya, and some other African nations among the list of nations is still a decently solid meet. I never hear anyone try to say it's any more than that, sort of a second-level international that can sometimes produce legendary moments.

And it's also a multi-sport festival. The Aussies take it seriously particularly in swimming.

The 2026 version in Glasgow will be a cut-down affair compared with the 2022 version (in order to cut costs) but several countries have now expressed interest in the 2030 Games, including India who are looking to use the CGs as a dress-rehearsal for a 2036 Olympics bid.

And Josh Kerr will be tempted to run in a Scottish vest before a home crowd in the 'Commonwealth Mile'.

Sounds like sour grapes, they are a great event and rival to most international games, though Olympics and for athletes the worlds are more important to most athletes.

still the competition is tough to beat due to number of formal empire countries taking part.

thankfully no yanks involved

NCAA

You've got the Asian Games and the Pan American Games. The Commonwealth Games are more competitive than either.

And for UK athletes the unique opportunity in the CGs to run for individual countries (England, Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland) rather than in a GB vest.

Yeah it's always been very dependent on the venue and even more-so these days - but that's also the same with the Olympics. They tried holding the games in SE Asia (KL'98) and the sub-continent (Delhi'10) but really the only geographical regions that can host and host well are the UK and Australia. And the "issue" with that is that a games in Australia is that they are in March/April at a time when nobody really wants to race.

In terms of on-track performance level, every now and then the stars align and you will get an incredible race that is as good as anything you see at the Olympics or Worlds. You named a few - the one I will always remember was Mottram v Choge in Melbourne 2006, which is still to this day is a faster performance than anything we have seen in an Olympics and has only been bested by the 2003 World Champs. It might also be the loudest crowd ever heard at an athletics meet - 85'000+ going crazy for Mottram. Melbourne in particular was as good an overall organization in terms of venues, crowd sizes, importance and imagination capture in the city as many Olympic Games (I'll reference it first hand vs Athens - easily comparable if not even better)

But in general the depth in fields that used to be there, especially in the 60's and 70's (remember no World Champs then either) just isn't there now. World and European champs being every 2 years has definitely hurt it. It's now down to 10 sports planned for 2026 which honestly is a good thing. I think it still has it's place and is a cool feeder championships especially for the nations that don't have the European champs as their 2nd level comp after the Olympics and World Champs.

No. Pan Am Games are for more overrated.

They should have a ranking system for most difficult track and field meets and award racing points like they do for timed performances. It would be cool to see athletes go and get the win if it meant boosting their ranking a bit

The 1974 Commonwealth Games was one of the best track meets ever.

Bayi's 1500m was the standout race but the 800m and 5000m races were classics as well.