The Isle of Wight has basked in the praise of plaudits since their ‘successful’ Island Games performance, but really the Isle of Wight should have done a lot better…
At the close of the Guernsey Island Games, the Isle of Wight Island Games Association wrote: “Team IOW amassed an impressive 38 medals – including 15 gold, 15 silver and 8 bronze. The shooting team is responsible for a whopping 23 of those medals – including 9 golds”.
But our performance compared with comparable islands, Jersey and Guernsey being the most obvious examples, was poor. And Team Isle of Wight was largely held up by those competing in shooting, swimming and cycling – plus Andy Frost and Nick Percy in the Athletics.
The Isle of Wight came 5th in the medals table, but we did have the largest population of any island competing in the Guernsey Island Games. Our population is 141,538 and we won 38 podium places, including 15 gold medals. That boils down to just 1 medal per 3,725 inhabitants and 1 gold for every 9,436 residents.
We can make a comparison with Guernsey, which has a population of just 63,950. The host island achieved 145 podium places and 54 golds – that works out at an impressive 1 medal for every 415 Guernsey islanders and 1 gold for every 1,184th person living there.
Someone from Guernsey was 9 times more likely to take a podium place and 8 times more likely to take gold than someone living here on the Isle of Wight.
Was this due to home advantage? Not really. When the Isle of Wight hosted the games in 2011, Guernsey again came out top, achieving over twice the number of medals as our Island despite bringing fewer competitors.
We can make further comparisons with islands placed 2nd to 4th in the medals table. A Jersey islander was 4 times more likely to achieve a podium place than a Caulkhead, a Faroese also 4 times more likely and a Manx competitor 3 times more likely (in terms of inhabitant per medal).
Of course, the Isle of Wight did better than some competing islands. We outperformed the Inuit from the frozen wastes of Greenland (where most outdoor sport is pretty near impossible for most of the year). We did better than St Helena (population 5,000) – a South Atlantic Island thousands of miles from the closest land mass. We also had a higher medals tally than the Maltese island of Gozo, competing at their 1st Island Games.
However, in terms of medals won per person, we were outperformed by the remote South Atlantic archipelago of the Falkland Islands (population 3,500).
The usual excuses for the Isle of Wight include poor connectivity and a demographic skewed to the older generation. These are problems faced by pretty much every island, where older generations arrive seeking comparative peace and solitude and the young escape to the mainland for work and education.
Furthermore, it should be pointed out that connectivity for the Isle of Wight is far better than that for most islands competing at the games. As much as we complain about the ferries, we are just 15 minutes from Portsmouth and half an hour from Southampton. Imagine the difficulties facing a sports team from the remote Scottish Western or Shetland Islands…
When Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight, Mrs Susie Sheldon, visited Guernsey she wrote:
“It was hard not to feel envious of the outstanding sporting facilities provided for a population of 60,000 people on an island that is one 6th of the size of the Isle of Wight.”
Is it a lack of opportunities, lack of facilities or lack of ambition and talent that is stopping us from nurturing talent to take on the likes of Guernsey? Or is it because those islands finishing above us in the medals table – Jersey, Guernsey, Faroe Islands and the Isle of Man – are all self-governing and can therefore put their own people first?
Serious questions need to be asked about how Team Isle of Wight can improve in the future and how local Government can support our local athletes. Are new facilities needed? Does there need to be a major investment in certain sports?
Team Isle of Wight’s poor performance extended to media coverage of the Games
The Isle of Wight Island Games Association was seemingly not interested in the first, fast, free ethos of Island Echo as an ‘exclusive’ agreement to cover Team Isle of Wight was awarded to a multinational news provider, who didn’t even send a reporter out to Guernsey.
Athletes were told to only speak to this 1 organisation in a bid to limit Island Echo’s coverage of the Games, despite us being the Island’s largest news website.
Fortunately – despite a complete lack of cooperation from Isle of Wight team organisers – we succeeded in bringing you the latest news of Isle of Wight medal winners, in most cases faster than the favoured news provider. In the days leading up to the event we also brought you a preview of each sport and its competitors, building up the excitement to the Games.
How did Team Isle of Wight do in the games? As expected, better than expected or worse than expected? Are you happy with the media coverage from Island Echo or others?
Let us know in the comments section below…
Well done to everyone, but when you compare the size of each of the Islands population
sadly the Island performed poorly.
Going forward better investment by the Council will ensure better success next time.
The article could have been written in a far more balanced way. Your comment stated what the person wished to convey without the negativity. I think comments such as ‘lack of ambition or lack of talent’ are just unkind when I know how much effort and commitment has been put in. It has certainly sparked debate that’s for sure. 🙂
I’m sure they would do better if they had a proper flag.
That new one looks like a 1970’s dog turd floating on the sea …….
Floating Bridge???
This article smacks of bitterness about being snubbed for sports coverage. If we want our athletes to do well we have to invest in them. That includes facilities and sponsorship. Our island team did an amazing job as did all of the volunteers and organisers. These games take dedication, time and money. I am incredibly proud of how well we did and this particular reporter would do well to lift those that participated, medals or not, rather than trying to pull them down!
I think the article has some very valid weight to its argument. We do have good facilities, we do have a great sponsorship programme in place that is supported by the IW council and Wightlink. Its just that the other competitors, for what ever reasons are not good enough.
Please expand on the “good facilities”. The islands main leisure centre is over 20 years old and costs the same price or more (per 55min hire) than a multimillion 5 year old facility in major cities such as London, Manchester, Southampton. Most sporting facilities on the island are owned by schools which either don’t hire out or don’t even reply to communications. Any new development of facilities in the community (which are funded by charity or local projects) get destroyed (eg. freshwater muga).
The sponsorship programs are a lottery. Not considering the level of competition or the accessibility of the sport on the island.
Yes our population is larger than most other competing islands, however, the demographic of most living here is retired overners, there was even overners in Team IW!
Poor answer to the general question. Maybe some of those people that have chosen to come to live on our island are competing at the Island games.
Yeah but if there was a competition on Carnivals, Mardi-Gras, Music Festivals, and Vehicle Rallies, the Island would be right at the top. Priorities and all that.
Well done the shooters, have good facilities over here.
As a past competitor at many Island games I would like to add the following. I am one of the shooting medal statistics that you are writing about, and have asked the same question about poor performances in the other sports in the past and come up with the following conclusion. The IOW will only ever be 4th or 5th in the medal table as an Island overall. Because the the Channel Islands, Isle of Man are commonwealth Islands, the Faroes is an Olympic island. Their performance standard is very much higher than ours. And for an IOW person to reach that level, which we have in a few cases, they have to become part of the Mainland UK, so the pool of people is that much higher, for individuals to reach the Commonwealth standard.
Poor answer, just because an island is commonwealth has no bearing on performance whatsoever, firstly any athlete must be talented, secondly coaching must be of a good quality, as should dedication, drive & focus, the fact that an island is commonwealth holds no substance & is a purely metaphoric point of view.
Not true, the Island Games is not elite sport, it’s half decent amateurs at best, a few island clubs dominating an IW quango set up, that is shown in the results & medal standings, the fact the mainland has a greater catchment area doesn’t matter in the slightest, take the United States for example, where it focuses well in sport it succeeds (athletics) , where it doesn’t, it fails (cricket) those results have nothing to do with population, it’s about correct focus, not standing!
We need better facilities and backing , how can it have anything to do with the older generation being here? Be proud of their achievements and give them more investment to do better.
Dose it really mater? Personally I don’t see the point in it all? Alot of effort for some shiny tin medal that means nothing to everyone other than the winner?
Considering all athletes had to raise their own money to get to the games, I think they all showed absolute dedication to sportsmanship. The tone of this article is mean and cruel.
Well done to all involved in the sports. Encouragement is what’s needed here.
Echo’s coverage of the games was good.
This is rather pathetic. Being polite.
“They didn’t use us so let’s criticise them”
Focus on the positives though, the IOW crew would beat them if they had to compete in core GCSE subjects, lol
A weeks jolly to the Channel Islands? I’d be up for that, I was The Malt & Hops dominio champion in the 70’s, proper competitive the IW League was, we had many a ding dong with The Barley Mow! Where do I sign?
You pay to go yourself the same as all the others and enjoy your expensive jolly.
No Isle of Man or any of the Scottish Islands ?
They may not have come home with all the medals, but they are in the top of their league for their particular sport. They put in the work before hand, they train to a high level, don’t knock them, praise them
Unfortunately this is what happens when we as a society encourage a generation to take part in non competitive sports days & believe you’re a winner for just taking part! Life isn’t like that, true winners succeed, unfortunately there has to be losers on the way!
Cooperation beats winner takes all competition every time.
Who cares? An absolutely ridiculous tournament. If they had an inbred village world championships, the island would wipe the floor with the opposition.
Brilliant!!!
If they were issuing medals for drink and drug driving I am certain the Island would have come first.
Rife on the Island.
I cannot see the point of the Island games the quality is so poor
I agree. Seen greater athletic prowess on It’s a Knockout back in the day.
Island Games Competitor here.
I’d like to address some of the comments below. Firstly, the medals row – as someone who got a medal at this games for the IoW, I can say the level of competition in my discipline was great. No issues there.
Why do we not win as many medals? I reckon this is down to a combination of personal finances and opportunity. The islands above us have higher incomes on average compared to us, simply put that allows for more available funds to be put into individual sport and training. Secondly, while our training is generally okay, it is not a great as others. There may be a link between quality of education resources and household income from a young age which has an influence on future indivudal growth.
Leading on from my points below: News
As a competitor we were not told to avoid any news outlet, that is our personal decision as to whom we approach. It is a shame you were not able to come out to Guernsey and join us but I would refrain from being so childish about it. If you were that upset about it, just travel over for a few days and report – speak to individual team managers on call or something.
All our athletes did the best they could. Sure, we didn’t win the medal table and probably never will. But does that matter? In my opinion, no. It is more about inspiring generations and getting our islands enguaging in sport. Which is what our population needs. We need to be a healthy society, mentally and physically for us to succed
Thank you for your comments, Rain.
We would have loved to come out to Guernsey to report on the events live and approached the organisers to see whether this was a possibility. Apparently, it was not.
At no time have we had any communication whatsoever with the Island Games Association, before, during or after the event. We were simply told that a different news organisation (non-Island based) would be reporting on the event.
Regarding not speaking to competitors, we were told (verbally and in writing) by a number of those taking part that they were only supposed to communicate with one particular multinational news organisation.
This severely hindered our ability to report on the games.
Some individual athletes were helpful and sent us images. This was particularly true for the shooting and basketball teams.
I think a lot of the points made about the ‘news’ were valid. The coverage of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man was far superior to that for the Isle of Wight.
Anyone from the other islands mentioned could get news about the event without having to negotiate a paywall or buy a newspaper.
Island Echo did its best to provide first, fast and free coverage. But this was without any assistance, support or communication from the Isle of Wight Island Games Association.