Commonwealth Games General Knowledge

The Commonwealth Games is an international event of sports. It takes place in every four years since 1930. Sportsmen from the Commonwealth of Nations participate in these games. India has hosted Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) controls this sporting event and selects the host cities. Including many Olympic Sports, there are a number of games/sports that are played predominantly in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls.

History of Commonwealth Games

Festival of Empire

In 1891, John Astley Cooper proposed a sporting competition for bringing together the members of the British Empire. In 1911, the Festival of Empire was held at Crystal Palace in London to celebrate the coronation of George V. Teams from Australasia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom competed in athletics, boxing, wrestling and swimming events.

Empire Games

In 1930, first British Empire Games were held at Civic Stadium, Hamilton.

The 1934 Games were the only Games in which Irish Free State did take part. These games were to hosted at Johannesburg, but finally awarded to London instead because of some prejudiced treatment of Black athletes.

The flag of Empire Games was donated in 1931 by 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 then changed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the flag was retired as a result.

Editions of CWG

The first edition of the event was the 1930 British Empire Games. After the interruption by Second World War, abandoned in 1942 and 1946, games were revived in 1950. Name of games got change with the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954.

Boycott episodes were also happened there in Commonwealth Games history. Games of 1978 were boycotted by Nigeria, as well as by Uganda. 1986 Games were also affected by boycott.

In 2002, the athletes of Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were included as full members of their national teams.

Ceremonies

Opening

The Commonwealth Games starts with a grand opening ceremony with cultural and military shows. The flag of Commonwealth Games Federation, flag of the last hosting nation and the current hosting nation are hoisted there. The 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi, India is considered to be most grand opening ceremony in the history of Commonwealth Games. That ceremony, with an estimated cost of $ 77 million, was highly compared with the opening ceremony of 2008 Summer Olympic Games at Beijing, China. Participating athletes parade in the stadium. President or Head of hosting nation declares the opening of the games.

Closing

The closing ceremony of Commonwealth Games takes place after the conclusion of all sporting events. Flag-bearers from each participating country, with those athletes who do not have any national distinction, enter the stadium. President of organizing committee and CGF make their closing speeches and the Games are officially closed. The mayor of host city transfers the CGF flag to the president of the CGF, which further passes to the mayor of next host city. Next host nation also briefly introduces itself with artistic and cultural displays. The best performed athlete gets the prestigious David Dixon Award.

LIST OF DAVID DIXON AWARDEE ATHLETES
Year	Athlete	Game/Sport	Country
2002	Natalie du Toit	Swimming	South Africa
2006	Samaresh Jung	Shooting	India
2010	Trecia Smith	Athletics	Jamaica
2014	Francesca Jones	Rhythmic Gymnastics	Wales

Approved Sports

22 sports (with three multi-disciplinary sports) and seven para-sports are approved by Commonwealth Games Federation. These are categorised into three types. Core Sports are must to be included in every programme. Optional Sports may be picked by the host nation. There are also some Recognised sports approved by CGF but are deemed to need expansion. Host nations may or may not pick these sports for their programme.

LIST OF THE SPORTS INCLUDED IN COMMONWEALTH GAMES CORE SPORTS
Athletics Badminton Boxing Field Hockey	Netball Rugby Sevens Squash	Lawn Bowls Swimming Weightlifting

LIST OF THE SPORTS INCLUDED IN COMMONWEALTH GAMES OPTIONAL SPORTS
Archery Basketball Canoeing Cycling Diving Triathlon Volleyball (Beach)	Gymnastics (Artistic) Gymnastics (Rhythmic) Judo Rowing Sailing Wrestling Ten-Pin Bowling	Softball Shooting Synchronized Swimming Table Tennis Taekwondo Tennis

LIST OF THE SPORTS INCLUDED IN COMMONWEALTH GAMES RECOGNIZED SPORTS
Billiards Cricket Fencing Footbal	Handball Life Saving Rugby League	Golf Volleyball (Indoor) Water Polo

Participation

There are 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations. However, number of participating teams goes to 70. There is a number of dependent territories which compete under their own flags e.g Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland etc. Only six countries have attended every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.

S. No.	Year	Host	Sports	Nations	Competitors	Topper
Inter-Empire Championships
*	1911	London	4	4	Unknown	Canada
British Empire Games
1^st	1930	Hamilton	6	11	400	England
2^nd	1934	London	6	16	500	England
3^rd	1938	Sydney	7	15	464	Australia
4^th	1950	Auckland	9	12	590	Australia
British Empire and Commonwealth Games
5^th	1954	Vancouver	9	24	662	England
6^th	1958	Cardiff	9	36	1122	England
7^th	1962	Perth	9	35	863	Australia
8^th	1966	Kingston	9	34	1050	England
British Commonwealth Games
9^th	1970	Edinburgh	9	42	1383	Australia
10^th	1974	Christchurch	9	38	1276	Australia
Commonwealth Games
11^th	1978	Edmonton	10	46	1474	Canada
12^th	1982	Brisbane	10	46	1583	Australia
13^th	1986	Edinburgh	10	26	1662	England
14^th	1990	Auckland	10	55	2073	Australia
15^th	1994	Victoria	10	63	2557	Australia
16^th	1998	Kuala Lumpur	15	70	3633	Australia
17^th	2002	Manchester	17	72	3679	Australia
18^th	2006	Melbourne	16	71	4049	Australia
19^th	2010	Delhi	17	71	6081	Australia
20^th	2014	Glasgow	17	71	4947	England

Posted on March 19, 2017 by Manjeet Chhillar

Commonwealth Games General Knowledge | CWG G.K