TheSportsCampus

Credit for conceptualizing an athletic event for the British Empire needs to be given to a Reverend - Astly Cooper, who in 1891 called for, "a means of increasing the goodwill and good understanding of the Empire". According to historical sources listed on the Commonwealth Games Council for England website, he wished for a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Festival" organized every four years (this was even before the Olympics were held in 1896!).

The Inter-Empire Championships were held in 1911 to mark the coronation of King George V and athletes from Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and the United Kingdom pa rticipated in 9 events across athletics, boxing, wrestling and swimming. A stunning piece of memorabillia, a souvenir book from the event called the Festival of Empire is available here. Incidentally, the Canadian team won the championships.

In 1928, the man who made it all possible Bobby Robinson, held a meeting with the heads of state of the British Empire and offered to host the games in his native Canada. They were promptly held in 1930, with 400 athletes representing 11 nations in what was then called the British Empire Games. The participating nations for the inaugural games were Australia, Bermuda, Canada, England, India, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Scotland, South Africa and Wales.

A rose by any other name...

• In 1950 the event was renamed The British Empire and Commonwealth Games
• In 1966 this was edited to The British Commonwealth Games (as the British finally let go of their dreams of conquest)
• In 1974 the name was once again shortened to its present state - The Commonwealth Games

Passing the baton

In 1958, Cardiff hosted the sixth edition of the games. For the opening ceremony, the Queen of England sent a message to be read on her behalf in a specially designed baton which was carried cross country by a group of 664 runners. This action now precedes the start of each games, similar to the Olympic torch relay which goes across the world.

Host Nations

The Hosts with the most are Australia, having played host on no less than four occasions in 1938, 1962, 1982 & 2006. On each occasion, a different city managed the event. Canada (1930, 1954, 1994) and New Zealand (1950, 1974, 1990) have been dream destinations for the games on three occasions each. Scotland with the winning bid for the 2014 games will soon join them on three (1970, 1986).

Rather surprisingly England has only played host to the games twice. In the second edition of the games in 1934 and more recently in 2002 when the games were held in Manchester.

Wales (1958), Jamaica (1966), Malaysia (1998) have also had the privilege of hosting the games. India the 2010 hosts will soon join the club.

Host nations have traditionally done very well in the games, seeing a significant jump in their medals tally (an outcome mirrored in the Olympics as well).

(The games were not held in 1942 & 1946 due to WW II)

Let's play together

Team Sports were introduced for the first time at the games in Malaysia in 1998 with the debut of cricket, hockey, netball and rugby 7's. They were huge hits and have since become an integral feature in the games and generally attract much larger audiences than individual sports. Cricket unfortunately became a casualty after Malaysia, though the other three sports have remained on the itinerary for each event thereafter. Basketball was added as an event for both men and women in the Melbourne Games in 2006.

Another first was the introduction of a category of events for athletes with disabilities. EAD (Elite Athletes with Disability) debuted at Manchester in 2002 and continued to grace the program at Melbourne in athletics, powerlifting, swimming and table tennis.

The year 2000 also witnessed the launch of the Commonwealth Youth Games held two years prior to the main games featuring athletes 18 years and under. In Oct, 2008 Pune, India will host the third edition of this event.

Sports

Apart from Athletics, Boxing and Swimming, no other sport has featured in every Commonwealth Games since its inception and the number and nature of sports to include in the games lies with the host nation. The inaugural games in Hamilton, Canada featured 6 sports (additions to the list mentioned earlier were Wrestling, Lawn Bowls and Rowing), though rather disappointingly the number though increasing in most editions has never really grown significantly. The 2010 games in India will include 17 sports - one more than Melbourne.

Each sport includes a number of events. The Manchester games in 2002 had 281 events in all and the Melbourne games 245. Some of these events are also categorized based on disciplines, for e.g. Aquatics is a sport and includes Diving, Swimming and Synchronized Swimming as its three disciplines. Within these disciplines swimming alone had 42 events at the Melbourne games include Backstroke, Freestyle, Medley, etc. for Men and Women across differing distances.

Medals

The three most successful nations in the history of the games are not surprisingly the most industrialized. Australia have won 1905 medals to date, including 730 Golds, England have 1694 including 578 Golds and Canada has 1316 medals including 413 Golds. New Zealand and South Africa have been traditional challengers and India seem to be the new kids on the block coming in 4th in the medals tally each of the last two years capturing 119 medals in the process. Expect a strong Indian performance on home turf in 2010 games to turn into a potential 3rd place finish in the medals table.

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