The Commonwealth Games are held every four years.
The competing teams are from the Commonwealth Nations.
The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Eleven countries with 400 athletes in total participated in the first
Since then, the Games have been held every four years
except for 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
The last Commonwealth
Games were held in Manchester in July and August 2002 and attractedabout
5,250 athletes from 72 Commonwealth nations and dependencies who participated
in 14 individual sports and three team sports.
The Games have not always been known
as the Commonwealth Games.
1930 to 1950 they were known as the British Empire Games,
Until 1962 they were known as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games
1966 to 1974 they took on the title of British Commonwealth Games
1978 onwards they have been known as simply the Commonwealth Games.
The 17 Sporting Events of the Commonwealth
- Aquatics - Swimming and diving are among the oldest sports in the world.
It was the Romans who introduced swimming to Britain as a 'manly
social pursuit' in the first century AD
- Athletics -
- Badminton - The sport of badminton started life nearly 150 years ago in the
great hall of one of the stately homes of England, Badminton
House in Gloucestershire. It was introduced into the Commonwealth
Games at Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966.
- Boxing - Boxing has been around since 4000 BC.
- Cycling - This sport has been featured in every Commonwealth Games since
- Gymnastics - Gymnastics is said to date back to ancient Greece.
- Hockey - Hockey is believed to be the oldest ball-and-stick game in the
world, dating back over 4000 years.
- Judo - Dr Jigoro Kano invented judo as a new form of the martial art
ju-jutsu in Japan in 1882.
Bowls - The most famous game of bowls in world history took place on
Plymouth Hoe on July 15, 1588, when Sir Francis Drake declined
to interrupt his game despite the proximity of the Spanish Armada.
- Netball - Netball first appeared in 1897. England hosted the first world
championships in 1963.
7s - William Webb Ellis, then a school boy, developed the game on
the playing fields of Rugby School way back in 1823.
- Shooting - In the UK, shooting is one of the most popular participation
sports behind football and fishing.
- Squash - The origins of this game comes within the confines of a London
jail at the begginning of the 19th century. Inmates of London's
Fleet Prison passed the time by hitting a ball against the walls
of the exercise area with rackets. They called their brainchild
Rackets . Later it was to become known as 'squash' after it was
discovered that the game offered far more variety if the solid
rubber ball was punctured or 'squashed'.
Tennis - Originated in England in the 1880's .
- Triathlon - This sport began life in California in the early eighties. The
triathlon will take place on the August 4, the final day of the
- Weightlifting -
- Wrestling - The first evidence of wrestling can be traced back 5,000 years
to works of art and poetry in the Middle East and illustrations
of wrestling techniques still practised today can be seen on
Egyptian drawings dating back to 2500 BC.