Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games Federation logo

The Commonwealth Games are an international sporting event, during which the best athletes from the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations meet every four years to compete in various sports. They are described as the third largest multisport event in the world after the Olympic Games and the Asian Games . These are 54 states.

history

British Commonwealth Games flag

The Englishman John Astley Cooper suggested in a newspaper article in 1891 that a festival combined with sport, military and literature be held between the members of the British Empire; less as competition, but more to strengthen friendship and solidarity between the members of the Empire. The proposal met with great interest and in 1911 the first Festival of Empire was held in London. Sport was just one item on the program. The sports program consisted of athletics , boxing , wrestling and swimming . Canada won the silver trophy donated by Lord Lonsdale.

It was not until 1928, under the impression of the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, that the idea was taken up by the Canadian MM Robinson and in 1930 it was held as a pure sporting event in Hamilton (Canada) as the British Empire Games . The success and the lively participation prompted the “Council of Representatives of Great Britain and the Dominions and Colonies” to hold similar events every four years between the Olympic Games. The name was changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1952 and to British Commonwealth Games in 1966 . The name Commonwealth Games has been in use since 1978.

In addition to most of the Olympic disciplines, the sports program also includes some sports that are only common in the Commonwealth of Nations. In 1998, the sports were athletics , badminton , bowls , boxing , cycling , gymnastics , shooting , swimming , weightlifting and wrestling the sports squash , water polo , cricket , hockey , netball and 7-Rugby accepted into the program.

On September 2nd, 2015, at a meeting of the organizers in New Zealand, the Commonwealth Games 2022 were awarded to the city of Durban in South Africa . In March 2017 it was announced that Durban could not meet the requirements of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). The opening was planned for July 18, 2022, Nelson Mandela's birthday . It would have been the first Commonwealth Games in Africa.

Events

Venues with details of the year

	year	city	Country (number of hosts)	date	sports	Athletes	Nations
Inter-Empire Championships
	1911	London	United Kingdom (1.)	May 12th to June 1st	4th	?	4th
British Empire Games
I.	1930	Hamilton	Canada (1.)	August 16-23	6th	about 400	11
II	1934	London	England (1.)	4th to 11th August	6th	about 500	16
III	1938	Sydney	Australia (1.)	February 5th to 12th	7th	464	15th
	1942	Montreal	Canada	not carried out
	1946	Cardiff	Wales	not carried out
IV	1950	Auckland	New Zealand (1.)	February 4th to 11th	9	560	12
British Empire and Commonwealth Games
V	1954	Vancouver	Canada (2.)	July 30th to August 7th	9	662	24
VI	1958	Cardiff	Wales (1.)	July 18-26	9	1130	35
VII	1962	Perth	Australia (2.)	November 22nd to December 1st	9	863	35
VIII	1966	Kingston	Jamaica (1.)	4th to 13th August	9	1050	34
British Commonwealth Games
IX	1970	Edinburgh	Scotland (1.)	July 16-25	9	1382	42
X	1974	Christchurch	New Zealand (2.)	January 24th to February 2nd	9	1348	38
Commonwealth Games
XI	1978	Edmonton	Canada (3.)	3rd to 12th August	10	1979	46
XII	1982	Brisbane	Australia (3.)	September 30th to October 9th	10	2154	46
XIII	1986	Edinburgh	Scotland (2.)	July 24th to August 2nd	10	2123	27
XIV	1990	Auckland	New Zealand (3rd)	January 24th to February 3rd	10	2862	54
XV	1994	Victoria	Canada (4.)	August 18th to 28th	10	3338	63
XVI	1998	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia (1.)	September 10th to 20th	15th	3638	70
XVII	2002	Manchester	England (2.)	July 25th to August 4th	17th	3863	72
XVIII	2006	Melbourne	Australia (4.)	March 15-26	16	4500	71
XIX	2010	Delhi	India (1.)	October 3-14	17th	7000	71
XX	2014	Glasgow	Scotland (3.)	July 23rd to August 3rd	17th	6500	70
XXI	2018	Gold coast	Australia (5.)	April 4th to 15th	18th	4426	71
XXII	2022	Birmingham	England (3.)	July 28th to August 8th

* After the withdrawal from Edmonton ( Canada ) and the disqualification - after allocation - from Durban ( South Africa ), initially (as of March 2017) no host has been determined. Liverpool and Birmingham were traded as substitute hosts. By November 1, 2017, Kuala Lumpur and Victoria had applied in addition to Birmingham . In December 2017, Birmingham was awarded the contract.

Sports at the Commonwealth Games

• Badminton at the Commonwealth Games
• Basketball at the Commonwealth Games
• Boxing at the Commonwealth Games
• Fencing at the Commonwealth Games
• Hockey at the Commonwealth Games
• Squash at the Commonwealth Games

Web links

Commons : Commonwealth Games  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official homepage of the Commonwealth Games Federation (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2014 ( Memento from March 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Arnd Krüger (1986): Was John Astley Cooper the inventor of the modern Olympic Games? In: LOUIS BURGENER u. a. (Ed.): Sport und Kultur, Vol. 6. Bern: Lang, pp. 72–81.
3. ^ Katharine Moore (1989): 'The warmth of comradeship': the first British empire games and imperial solidarity, in: The International Journal of the History of Sport 6: 2, pp. 242-251.
4. ↑ How Durban blew its Commonwealth Games bid. In: HeraldLIVE. March 13, 2017, accessed April 1, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Sport1.de: Commonwealth Games 2022 will not take place in Durban. In: sport1.de. March 13, 2017, accessed April 1, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Durban loses 2022 Commonwealth Games - reports. In: Sport24 , March 13, 2017.
7. ↑ Victoria bid for 2022 Commonwealth Games over after Province refuse to back it. In: Inside The Games. August 24, 2017, accessed September 1, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Birmingham remain in pole position for 2022 Commonwealth Games as potential rivals struggle for political support. Inside the Games, November 1, 2017.
9. ↑ Birmingham officially named as 2022 Commonwealth Games host city. The Guardian, December 21, 2017.