What Did We Learn From The 2022 Commonwealth Games?

The recently ended Commonwealth Games gave India’s best athletes the chance to compete against others from around the world. So how did the Indian delegation get on in Birmingham 2022 and what have we learned from the event overall?

The Power of Streaming

Sports fans in India had more ways of watching the events from Birmingham than was the case in any other Commonwealth Games in the past. This was mainly due to the increase in the streaming possibilities that the latest technology has opened up. With an expected 900 million internet users in India by 2025, this is one of the world’s biggest online markets and it’s going to keep on growing, with the rollout of 5G giving faster, more reliable access than ever before.

2022’s Commonwealth Games gave us the chance to see India’s athletes compete against others from around the planet in a more convenient way, by watching the events on YouTube or on mobile apps. This is part of the recent trend for streaming online entertainment, which we’ve seen in areas such as TV shows and movies, with services like ALTBalaji and ZEE5 joining the international companies like Netflix and Amazon that also operate here.

Streaming has also made a huge impact in the gaming world, with Xyaa and SwaggyDilly among the country’s most popular games on the Twitch platform. We can also see streaming making an impact in casino games by looking at the online roulette real money India sites. Options like Jackpot Guru, 1xBet, and Pure Win include a variety of ways of playing roulette, with versions where a human dealer is streamed onto the screen among the most popular. Different variants of the game, like American roulette and European roulette, can be played in this way on a mobile device or laptop.

India’s Increasing Medal Haul

At first sight, it seems that the Indians had performed poorly, and had picked up fewer medals than in previous Commonwealth Games. This could even be seen as a sign that the country was losing ground in certain sports. However, a closer look reveals that their 18th trip to this event resulted in a better haul than in previous events, due to the fact that some disciplines were missing this time. A total of 61 medals were won in Birmingham by Indian athletes, and this includes 22 gold medals across a range of sports.

The first Indian medal winner was Sanket Saragar, who picked up a silver in weightlifting, and it was also in weightlifting that Saikhom Mirabai Chanu collected the nation’s first gold medal of the Games. As for the most outstanding individual performance by an Indian, Sharath Kamal went home with three gold medals and a silver medal from the table tennis events. Overall, India was the best-performing country in table tennis, wrestling, weightlifting and badminton. This led to them grabbing a fourth place in the medals table despite the absence of the shooting category that the country usually excels in.

The women’s team also produced some memorable moments, as female Indian competitors collected a total of 23 medals, together with the three medals won in mixed events. Among these was the gold medal won by the Women’s Fours team in lawn bowls, which was followed up by the men winning a silver in the same category. This breakthrough in lawn bowls was just one of several historic firsts achieved by the women’s team.

The bronze medal won by the female hockey wasn’t their first ever in this event, but it marked a return to winning ways in an event that Indian teams have traditionally been strong in but that hadn’t yielded any medals since the 2006 Games. Just as welcome was the bronze medal picked up by Annu Rani in the javelin throw category, as an Indian woman had never before won a medal in this discipline. Mirabai Chanu also hit the headlines by winning the women’s 49 kg weightlifting gold medal and setting a new Commonwealth Games record in the process.

The next Commonwealth Games will take place in 2026 in the Australian state of Victoria. Indian sports fans can expect to be able to enjoy the action in even more ways than they had this year, while we hope that the athletes who head to Australia are as successful as those who competed in Birmingham.