The next Commonwealth Games host city Birmingham had a team of "observers" in Australia for the Games but their handover segment was not immune from criticism for being too long and over-complex.

Has the time now come to downsize the Closing Ceremony itself and try and re-introduce an element of spontaneity?

In the early years, the Olympics did not have a formal Closing Ceremony as such. 

At London 1908, for example, the events held in July at the Great Stadium in West London were followed by a formal prize giving .The winners often received medals and a cup. There was an additional trophy for winning the Olympic football tournament for example. These were distributed by dignitaries standing at a table in much the same way they would do for a village fete.

The 1908 Games in fact continued with further sports until the end of October and there was no formal closing but rather a farewell banquet at Holborn in Central London. Organising Committee chairman Lord Desborough spoke at length of Games "which have brought together from nearly every country of the world , a trained body of athletes who have striven together amicably in what was I think the best adapted arena which has been constructed since the history of athletics began."

In addition to his Lordship,there were six other speakers. Plus ca Change!

The prize giving ceremonies lasted throughout the 1920s. As each prize was presented the national flag of the winner was held above them as the recipient stepped forward. The city fathers of 1920 host city Antwerp added an extra element to the ritual with the introduction of a ceremonial Olympic flag. This was presented to the Parisians, the next host city in 1924. Adorned with an embroidered border in the same colours as the Olympic rings, this was presented to each host city and displayed in the appropriate civic building between the Games. Despite commonly held misconceptions, this flag did not fly in the stadium.

In the 1930s, the closing of the Games gradually became more of an event. At Berlin 1936 searchlights pierced the shadows as the Games came to an end. The flag was handed to the Nazi Mayor Julius Lippert .

The Closing Ceremony had not changed by the time of the next Summer Games in London in 1948. It took place immediately after the final event, the show jumping grand prix held in the centre of Wembley Stadium. There was no parade of athletes there either. Most of the participants had already returned home and their flags were paraded by enthusiastic members of the Boy Scout movement.

Proceedings were still very modest in 1956 when the Games were held in Melbourne. The official closing formalities took place in the Melbourne Cricket Ground immediately after the football final. The difference in 1956 was that many of the competitors had decided to remain in Australia. A Chinese Australian teenager called John Ian Wing. He had followed the Games through the media and was also well aware of wider international matters at a time of conflict in the world. He wrote to Organising Committee chief Wilfrid Kent-Hughes with his suggestion for the competitors to enter without distinction of nationality.

"The march I have in mind is different from the opening and will make the Games even greater," he said. "War, politics and nationality will be forgotten what more could anyone want if the world could be made as one nation? They must not march but walk freely and wave to the public. When they stop they should be given three cheers."

His letter even included diagrams suggesting the spacing but did not reveal his own identity , later sparking a quest to find him.

Although the letter arrived during the Games, Kent-Hughes responded commendably quickly. Wing himself did not attend any event at the Melbourne Olympics but had the satisfaction of knowing he had changed the face of the Closing Ceremony. A street at the Sydney Olympic Park was later named in his honour and he was an honoured guest at the 2000 Games Closing Ceremony.

Wing’s idea was also enthusiastically taken up by competitors at the Commonwealth Games and other regional events. Not everyone approved of the new "’informality’". International Olympic Committee member and Commonwealth Games Federation President Sir Arthur Porritt lambasted the 1962 Games closing in Perth as a "shambles" after athletes came in the wrong way and impeded the departure of Prince Philip.

The spontaneity of the athletes was however applauded at later Games as they provided an enthusiastic and impromptu escort for the Royal party. Most importantly, it was the act of mingling together without distinction of nationality which offered a symbolic image

The warmth of feeling had also been expressed at the 1960 Olympic Games where spectators spontaneously set light to their programmes a gesture of farewell to the Olympic flame. In these days of non-smoking stadia, this would have provoked more consternation than joy amongst the organisers.

The 1976 in Montreal Closing Ceremony offered perhaps the ultimate spontaneous gesture, as a streaker infiltrated the infield as dancers formed the five Olympic rings leaving IOC President Lord Killanin to remark on his lack of visible accreditation.

The Montreal Closing Ceremony had specially composed music, an extensive first nation sequence and even a satellite link up on the big screen with Moscow, host city for 1980.

The Soviet authorities had laid on the first truly spectacular opening and, unsurprisingly, the closing was equally well disciplined. the march in of the athletes was followed by some superb set-pieces of dance.

Not to be outdone, Los Angeles four year later had also staged a huge Closing Ceremony which included the arrival of a spaceship, suspended in the darkness above the stadium and the appearance of an "extra-terrestrial" spaceman to salute the crowd.

A few hours before, the men’s marathon had been the last sporting event of those 1984 Games. Organisers had decided that the stragglers in the race would be diverted to an alternative finish line, so as not to risk disrupting the carefully planned ceremony. It was a decision by the organisers which drew considerable criticism.

The athletes entered the stadium in the informal manner suggested by Wing in 1956, but many decided to ignore the stewards who tried to shepherd them into the centre field. The irritation in the voices of stadium announcers was clear. 

Organisers have wrestled with how to accommodate the athletes ever since. They seem unsure whether the closing event should a ceremony or a pop concert. Some have tried to set up a "mosh pit" in front of the stage so that the athletes enjoy the best view of the stage without unduly delaying the Ceremony.

This may have been what the organisers of the Gold Coast 2018 Closing Ceremony had in mind but lengthy instructions to "choreograph" the athletes came across as patronising at best. Unlike Sydney 2000, many decided to leave long before the televised portion of the Ceremony was underway.

Perhaps the best solution is something like that used for the 2016 WinterYouth Olympic Games in Lillehammer. A relatively short ceremonial and music performance for the cameras involving the athletes. Then allow the party to continue for the athletes afterwards.

What we have now is a staged event in which anything which threatened to disrupt the ordained television schedule is frowned upon. The obsession with control quickly spread to those in the crowd. They are frequently issued with a spectator kit and given instructions on when to join in, what flashlight setting to use and so on.

The handover to the next city could also be simplified. Before the 1980s, it consisted of a small party, typically of dancers and musicians accompanying the appropriate flag before a brief exchange took place. In the Gold Coast, the transfer of the flag was described as like a game of "pass the parcel".

Since Los Angeles 1984, every host city has not only sent a representative to receive the flag, but they have also been asked to present a short segment presenting their country. Very often, the "handover" segment has suffered in comparison to the grandeur of everything which has preceded it. Remember the bizarre dancing mascot Whatizzit for Atlanta, the Kangaroos on bicycles from Sydney as they received the flag from Atlanta 1996, Salt Lake’s stagecoach or that London bus seen in Beijing in 2008?

Few performances have equalled the dignity of Athens when they received the flag in 2000 from Sydney, or the balletic tour de force offered by Sochi 2014 in Vancouver as they took hold of the flag.

Both were very simple in their execution and perhaps that is the way ahead. Buenos Aires 2018 did not send their Mayor to Nanjing to receive the Youth Olympic Flag in 2014. This was handed over to a representative group behind closed doors.

Yet that absence of the first citizen of Buenos Aires might also offer an idea for the future.

Why not change the protocol and instead of the Mayor or civic representative, instead invite a young sportsman or woman from the next host city to receive the flag? That would surely be a far more resonant call to the youth of the world to participate.

Michael Pavitt's next blog will appear on May 6