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General knowledge · Sport

The Commonwealth Games

First held 1930

Sport — the quadrennial multi-sport meeting of the Commonwealth

A multi-sport event held every four years among the nations and territories of the Commonwealth, first staged at Hamilton, Ontario in 1930 as the British Empire Games. Long nicknamed the Friendly Games, it is distinguished by a programme that keeps lawn bowls and netball, by letting England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies compete separately, and by being the first global multi-sport event to fold para events fully into the main programme. Glasgow staged a deliberately slimmed-down twenty-third edition in 2026, and the centenary Games go to Amdavad in India in 2030.

How to spot them

  • ▸The Friendly Games; four-yearly, in the even year between Olympics
  • ▸A baton carrying a message from the monarch, relayed round the world since 1958
  • ▸Lawn bowls and netball; the four British home nations entering separately
  • ▸Three changes of name between 1930 and 1978, tracking the end of empire

Key facts

Eleven countries and some four hundred athletes met at Hamilton, Ontario in 1930, Canada having paid the travelling costs (1930)

The first British Empire Games; the idea went back to John Astley Cooper's proposed Pan-Britannic Festival of 1891

Roger Bannister and John Landy both ran the mile inside four minutes in the same race at Vancouver in 1954 (1954)

The Miracle Mile; Bannister won in 3:58.8. At the same meeting Jim Peters collapsed in the marathon within sight of the finish

A baton carrying a handwritten message from the sovereign is relayed around the member nations and read out at the opening ceremony (1958)

The Queen's Baton Relay, begun for Cardiff 1958 and now the King's Baton Relay — the counterpart of the Olympic torch

From Manchester 2002 the medals of athletes with a disability counted in the main table, a first for a global multi-sport event (2002)

Para events are fully integrated rather than run as a separate meeting

Lawn bowls and netball hold their place on the programme, and Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man send teams of their own

Seventy-four nations and territories are eligible, far more than there are Commonwealth member states

Thirty-two nations stayed away from the 1986 edition in Edinburgh over Britain's refusal to sanction apartheid South Africa (1986)

Mostly African, Asian and Caribbean teams; only 26 of 59 eligible teams took part

Glasgow stepped in for 2026 after the Australian state of Victoria abandoned the hosting on cost grounds (2026)

Victoria withdrew in July 2023; the rescued Games ran 23 July to 2 August 2026 across four venues, with ten sports and 215 medal events

Amdavad in India takes the centenary edition in 2030 (2030)

Ratified by all 74 member nations and territories at the general assembly in Glasgow, ahead of a rival bid from Abuja

Key ideas

  • The changing name is a potted history of decolonisation: British Empire Games 1930–1950, British Empire and Commonwealth Games 1954–1966, British Commonwealth Games 1970–1974, and simply the Commonwealth Games from Edmonton 1978.

Quick-fire facts

  • •First held at Hamilton, Ontario in 1930, as the British Empire Games
  • •Held every four years, apart from 1942 and 1946, which were cancelled by the Second World War
  • •Edinburgh 1970 was the first to use metric distances and an electronic photo finish
  • •The Queen's Baton Relay began at Cardiff in 1958 and is now the King's Baton Relay
  • •Manchester 2002 was the first global multi-sport event to integrate para events into the main programme and medal table
  • •Edinburgh has hosted twice, in 1970 and 1986; Glasgow in 2014 and 2026
  • •The 2026 Games in Glasgow ran from 23 July to 2 August with ten sports and 215 medal events, after Victoria, Australia withdrew as host
  • •Australia topped the 2026 medal table with 70 golds among 171 medals; England were second with 110, of which 29 were gold, and Canada third with 62
  • •Emma Finucane of Wales became the first cyclist to win all four sprint events at a single Games in 2026 — team sprint, sprint, 1000m time trial and keirin
  • •South Africa's Chad le Clos became the most decorated athlete in the history of the Games, reaching 21 medals in 2026

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Sources