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Commonwealth Games » History
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Commonwealth Games History |
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Entire the world Commonwealth Games is the second largest sports events after the Olympic game. The Games are organized once in four years but only in between the Olympic years. The Games were previously famous as the British Empire Games. The opening Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 at Hamilton, Canada.
The 10th Commonwealth Games were organized at Christchurch, New Zealand in 1974, the 11th in Edmonton (Canada) in 1978, the 12th in Brisbane (Australia) in 1982, the 13th in Edinburgh (Scotland) in 1986, the 14th in Auckland (New Zealand) in 1990 and the 15th in Victoria (Canada) in 1994, where about 3,350 athletes from a record 64 nations (including South Africa, which joined the family of Commonwealth athletes after 36 years) participated.
Namibia also, which got its independence in 1990, made its debut while Hong Kong made its last appearance in the Games before being ceded to China in 1997. After the huge success of the first commonwealth games at Hamilton in 1930 its enough incentive to make them regular.
Since 1930, they have taken place every four years apart from 1942 and 1946, when they were disturbed due to World War II. The 16th games are held in Melbourne. From 1930 to 1950 the Games were recognized as the British Empire Games, and then the name was changed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games until 1962.
In between 1966 to 1974 they had the name of British Commonwealth Games and from 1978 beyond they have been familiar as simply the Commonwealth Games. An exceptional characteristic of the Commonwealth Games is being the only Games which share a common language. All athletes and officials can speak with together in English, creating an environment that has led to the Commonwealth Games being long recognized as the "Friendly Games".
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