The Commonwealth Games
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Nations that are eligible to compete in the Commonwealth Games
Nations that have competed in ALL Commonwealth Games
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The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations.
- A brief history of the Commonwealth Games
- The sports
- Australia and the Commonwealth Games
- The 2018 host city – Gold Coast
- Commonwealth Games fast facts
- References
A printable PDF of the information on this page is available in the right-hand column.
A brief history of the Commonwealth Games
In 1891, John Astley Cooper first wrote about a sporting competition that would bring together members of the British Empire, but it wasn’t until 1911, at the coronation of King George V, that an ‘Inter-Empire Championships’ was held. This event included teams from Australasia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom. They competed in athletics, boxing, wrestling and swimming events.
The first official Commonwealth Games (called the British Empire Games) were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada. Four hundred athletes from 11 countries competed in 59 events across six sports: athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, rowing, aquatics (swimming and diving) and wrestling. Interestingly, women only competed in swimming events. The competing nations were: Australia, Bermuda, British Guyana, Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.
Since 1930, the Games have taken place every four years, except in 1942 and 1946 (due to World War II), but they have had a few name changes:
- British Empire Games (from 1930 to 1950)
- British Empire and Commonwealth Games (from 1954 to 1966)
- British Commonwealth Games (from 1970 to 1974)
- Commonwealth Games (since 1978)
Nine nations have hosted the Commonwealth Games:
- Australia (1938, 1962, 1982, 2006, 2018)
- Canada (1930, 1954, 1978, 1994)
- New Zealand (1950, 1974, 1990)
- Scotland (1970, 1986, 2014)
- England (1934, 2002)
- Wales (1958)
- Jamaica (1966)
- Malaysia (1998)
- India (2010)
The sports
The first Commonwealth Games only included six sports. Today, the host nation must include a minimum of 10 core sports on their program:
- Aquatics (swimming)
- Athletics
- Badminton
- Boxing (men, with an option to add women’s events)
- Hockey
- Lawn Bowls
- Netball (women)
- Rugby 7s (men, with an option to add women’s sevens)
- Squash
- Weightlifting
The host nation can then add up to seven more events from a list including: archery, basketball, gymnastics, rowing, softball, cycling and table tennis.
In Manchester (2002), the Commonwealth Games became the first multi-sport event to include Para-Sports events in a fully inclusive program. Host cities must now include four core Para-Sports in their program and can include up to three more. The mandatory events are:
- Athletics
- Lawn Bowls
- Powerlifting
- Swimming
The total number of events at a Games must not exceed 20.
The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games will include 18 events. In addition to the ten core events there is:
- Basketball
- Beach volleyball
- Cycling (road, mountain bike and track)
- Gymnastics (rhythmic and artistic)
- Para power lifting
- Shooting
- Table tennis
- Triathlon
Australia and the Commonwealth Games
Athletes from Australia have been to all the Commonwealth Games since they first (officially) began in 1930. For those Games the team took almost a month to travel from Sydney to Hamilton, Canada. International air travel was not common and very expensive in those days, so they travelled by ship, on the RMS Aorangi.
Australia has hosted the Commonwealth Games four times: 1938 (Sydney), 1962 (Perth), 1982 (Brisbane) and 2006 (Melbourne), and the Gold Coast will host the Games in April 2018.
We should be very proud because Australia is the overall champion of the Commonwealth! We have won 2218 medals in total. England is second with 2008 and Canada is third with 1473.
Our most successful Games was in 2006 (Melbourne), at which the athletes won 221 medals (84 gold, 69 silver and 68 bronze). At the last Games in Glasgow, we won 137 medals (49 gold, 42 silver and 46 bronze). As the host nation, the 2018 team will be eager to break their 2006 record.
The 2018 host city – Gold Coast
The host city for the 2018 Commonwealth Games is the Gold Coast.
Located just north of the Queensland/New South Wales border, and about 66 kilometres south of Brisbane, the Gold Coast is a coastal city with a population of around 640,000 people. It is the sixth-largest city in Australia (the largest non-capital city) and the second largest in Queensland (after Brisbane).
The Gold Coast is one of Australia’s major tourist destinations with its sunny sub-tropical climate, beautiful surfing beaches, theme parks and rainforest hinterland. More than 10 million people visit the Gold Coast every year, including around one million international visitors.
The Gold Coast is also a film production hub with movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Thor: Ragnarok being filmed there.
Commonwealth Games fast facts
- The highest number of nations to compete at a Games was 72 at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games. Although, the largest number of athletes (4,929) were present at the 2014 Glasgow Games.
- Often referred to as the ‘Friendly Games’, only single competition sports were on the program until the 1998 Games which included team sports for the first time. Nations then competed in cricket, hockey, netball and rugby 7s.
- Not all athletes are under the age of 30! Lawn bowler Dorothy Roche, was 61 when she won gold at the 1990 Games in Auckland, making her Australia’s oldest Commonwealth Games gold medal winner ever.
- Australia’s youngest gold medal winner was swimmer Jenny Turrell, who was just 13 when she competed at the 1974 Games in Christchurch.
- Amazingly, while 71 countries are eligible to compete in the Commonwealth Games, only six have attended every Games since 1930. These are Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.
Nations that are eligible to compete in the Commonwealth GamesNations that have competed in ALL Commonwealth Games
- The 1930 Games cost £20,000 (approx. $33,000) to run. The Melbourne Games in 2006 cost approximately $300,000,000 and this amount didn’t even include the cost of building the facilities!
- The 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast is the 21st Games to be held. They will run from 4 April to 15 April 2018.
- The slogan for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games is ‘Share the Dream’ and the mascot is a blue, surfing koala named Borobi.
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