Commonwealth Games Trivia
Here is some trivia related to the Commonwealth Games. See also Firsts, a Commonwealth Games Quiz and Medal Tally Trivia.
- In 1911, the first 'commonwealth games type' event was held - the 'Festival of Empire' was held in London to celebrate the coronation of King George V. As part of the festival, an Inter-Empire Championships was held with teams from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom participating.
- The first official Commonwealth Games was held in Hamilton Canada in 1930, and at that time it was called the British Empire Games.
- At the first Games in 1930, women competed in only the aquatic events.
- Canadian triple jumper Gordon Smallacombe won the first-ever gold medal in the history of the Games.
- The 1930 Commonwealth Games included a podium at the medal ceremonies. It was later copied by the Olympic Movement.
- The fourth Commonwealth Games were originally awarded to Montreal, Canada and were to be held in 1942, but were canceled due to World War II. The 1946 Commonwealth Games were also canceled because of the Second World War.
- The three core values of the Commonwealth Games (adopted in 2001) are: Humanity, Equality & Destiny.
- Between 1958 and 1966, there were three edition of the Commonwealth Winter Games, a winter version of the Commonwealth Games
- The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were held alongside the Commonwealth Games from 1962 to 1974.
- The first time there was a games mascot was in 1978 in Edmonton - Keyano, a Swan Hills Grizzly Bear.
- The first time an Asian country hosted the Games was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998.
- The first time team sports were played at the Commonwealth Games was in 1998, when Cricket, Men's and Women's Hockey, Netball and Rugby 7's were added to the program.
- In 1998, the Queen’s Baton was carried into the stadium on an elephant.
- Mozambique is part of the Commonwealth Games despite having no historic links to Britain and the Commonwealth.
- The Kuala Lumpur 1998 Queen’s Baton Relay was the first to deliver the relay to other nations of the Commonwealth, besides England and the host country.
- The smallest country to compete at the Commonwealth Games is Niue, with a population of 1,600.
- The relay baton has traditionally contained the message from the Queen to the athletes. For the 2006 Games in Melbourne, the 'Queen's message' was actually stored on a memory chip attached to the baton.
- Weightlifter Marcus Stephen won twelve medals (including 7 golds) at the Commonwealth Games for Nauru between 1990 and 2002. In 2007 he was elected President of Nauru.
- Only six nations have attended every Commonwealth Games - Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Of these six countries, only four have won at least one gold medal in every Games. They are England. New Zealand. Australia, and Canada. See more trivia about participating countries.
- Rugby 7s was the only male-only core sports at the Commonwealth Games, until a women's event was added in 2018. Netball is the only female-only core sport.
- Northern Irish shooter David Calvert appeared a record 11 Commonwealth Games (1978-2018), the record of the most appearances at the Games.
- At the 2022 Commonwealth Games there will be two more female medal events than men's - 135 to 133, thanks to the addition of women's T20 cricket.
- In 2022, two major multi-sport events will be held in cities called Birmingham - the Commonwealth Games (Birmingham, England) and the World Games (Birmingham, Alabama, USA)
- 72-year-old Scottish athlete Rosemary Lenton is the oldest ever gold medallist. In her Games debut, she helped Scotland win the Para women's pairs bowls event in Birmingham, 2022.
- Scottish distance runner Eilish McColgan won the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000m, replicating the feat of her mother Liz McColgan who won the same race in 1986 and 1990.
Related Pages
- List of Firsts — the first time this and that happened.
- Medal Tally Trivia
- Trivia about Commonwealth Games Participating Countries
- Event Trivia: 2022
- For trivia about each individual nation, following the links from the list of all participating nations.
- For trivia about of the previous host cities, see the Host City list.
- Commonwealth Games Quiz
- Olympic Games Trivia
- More Sports Trivia
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