The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations.
As well as many Olympic sports, the Games also include some sports that are played mainly in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls, rugby sevens and netball. The Games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. The host city is selected from across the Commonwealth, with eighteen cities in seven countries having hosted it.
The event was first held in 1930 under the title of the British Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The event was renamed as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, and gained its current title in 1978. Only six teams have attended every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Australia has been the highest achieving team for eleven games, England for seven and Canada for one.
There are currently 54 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and 71 teams participate in the Games. The four Home Nations of the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – send separate teams to the Commonwealth Games, and individual teams are also sent from the British Crown dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man (unlike at the Olympic Games, where the combined "Great Britain" team represents all four home nations and the Crown dependencies). Many of the British overseas territories also send their own teams. The Australian external territory of Norfolk Island also sends its own team, as do the Cook Islands and Niue, two states in free association with New Zealand. It was reported that Tokelau, another dependency of New Zealand would be sending a team to the 2010 Games in New Delhi, India. In the end, however, they did not.Contents .
History
A sporting competition bringing together the members of the British Empire was first proposed by the Reverend Astley Cooper in 1891 when he wrote an article in The Times suggesting a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing the goodwill and good understanding of the British Empire".
In 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held in London to celebrate the coronation of King George V. As part of the festival an Inter-Empire Championships was held in which teams from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming and athletics.
In 1928, Melville Marks Robinson of Canada was asked to organise the first British Empire Games. The first Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, to British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and assumed the current name of the Commonwealth Games in 1978.
At the 1930 games, women competed in the swimming events only. From 1934, women also competed in some athletics events.
The Empire Games flag was donated in 1931 by the British Empire Games Association of Canada. The year and location of subsequent games were added until the 1950 games. The name of the event was changed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the flag was retired as a result.
Commonwealth Winter Games
Commonwealth Winter Games is a multi-sport event comprising winter sports which is designed as a counterbalance of the Commonwealth Games, which focuses on summer sports. This is analogous to the Winter Olympics augmenting the Summer Olympic Games.
The first, and so far only, time the event was held was the 1962 Commonwealth Winter Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. This event complemented the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia.
A Winter Games was proposed for 2010 in India, complementing the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. The proposed venue was Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir, where the Indian National Winter Games had previously been held. However, the idea did not come to fruition and the event was not held.
Commonwealth Youth Games
The Commonwealth Youth Games are a small-scale version of the Commonwealth Games, designed the youth of the the 71 Commonwealth countries.
History
The first Commonwealth Youth Games were held in, Scotland in August 2000 where 733 Athletes from 14 countries competed in 8 sports over 3 days. The second edition of the Commonwealth Youth Games took place in, Australia in December 2004 and saw over 1000 athletes and officials from 22 countries in a 10 sport programme. The third Youth Games were held in the Indian city of from 12 - 18 October 2008 where 71 nations and territories participated in 9 sports. A decision was taken by the Commonwealth Games Federation at their General Assembly in 2005 to move the Youth Games outside of the Olympic Games year and in doing so awarded the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games to the Isle of Man. A decision was taken at the General Assembly in 2008 to award the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games to Samoa and also to subsequently adjust the quadrennial cycle, so that future events will take place in 2017, 2021 and so on. All competitors in the Commonwealth Youth Games will be a minimum of 14 and maximum of 18 in the year of competition (i.e, their 18th birthday is during the calendar year in which the Games is held) and a maximum number of 1000 competitors are invited to participate from every Commonwealth Games Association.
Traditions
The 2006 relay passing through Wagga Wagga, Australia
From 1930 until 1950, the parade of nations was led by a single flagbearer carrying the Union Flag.
Since 1958, the Queen's Baton Relay has taken place, in which athletes carry a baton from Buckingham Palace to the games opening ceremony. This baton has within it Queen Elizabeth II's message of greeting to the athletes. The baton's final bearer is usually a famous sporting personage of the host nation.
All other nations march in English alphabetical order, except that the first nation marching in the Parade of Athletes is the host nation of the previous games, and the host nation of the current games marches last. In 2006 countries marched in alphabetical order in geographical regions.
The Big helium aerostat with traditional Indian Rajasthani puppets attached, during the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony
Three national flags fly from the stadium on the poles that are used for medal ceremonies: Previous host nation, Current host nation, Next host nation.
The military is more active in the Opening Ceremony than in the Olympic Games. This is to honour the British Military traditions of the Old Empire.
Editions
The first edition of the event was the 1930 British Empire Games and eleven nations took part. The quadrennial schedule of the games was interrupted by World War II and the 1942 Games (set to be held in Montreal, Canada) and the 1946 Games were abandoned. The games were continued in 1950 and underwent a name change four years later with the first British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954. Over 1000 athletes participated in the 1958 Games as over thirty teams took part for the first time.
The event was briefly known as the British Commonwealth Games for the 1970 and 1974 editions and the 1978 Games, held in Edmonton, Canada, were the first to be held under the title of the "Commonwealth Games".The Edmonton event marked a new high as almost 1500 athletes from 46 countries took part.
Participation at the 1986 Games was affected by a boycott by some African and Caribbean nations in protest to the participation of New Zealand, following the All Blacks Rugby tour of Apartheid era South Africa in 1985, but the Games rebounded and continued to grow thereafter. The 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia saw the sporting programme grow from 10 to 15 sports as team sports were allowed for the first time. Participation also reached new levels as over 3500 athletes represented 70 teams at the event. At the most recent Games (in Melbourne, Australia in 2006), over 4000 athletes took part in sporting competitions.
The three nations to have hosted the games the most number of times are Australia (4), Canada (4) and New Zealand (3). Furthermore, five editions have taken place in the countries within the United Kingdom (Scotland 2, England 2 and Wales 1). Two cities have held the games on multiple occasions: Auckland (1950 and 1990), and Edinburgh (1970 and 1986)
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