Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games concept dates back to 1891 when Reverend J. Astley Cooper proposed a gathering of sports and other cultural events for nations with ties to the Commonwealth. No event came from this proposal but twenty years later, in 1911, a celebration call the “Festival of the Empire” was held to commemorate the coronation of King George V. Athletes from Britain, Canada, South Africa, and Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) competed in a limited schedule of athletics, boxing, swimming, and wrestling in the midst of many other scheduled events.
British Empire Games
The bid for permanent games began in Canada, in 1924, when Canada’s Amateur Athletic Union proposed a competition to be called the “British Empire Games.” At the 1928 Olympic Games, Melville Marks Robinson, a reporter for a Hamilton newspaper who served at the Games as a manager for the Canadian track and field team, worked to promote the idea.
In 1928 and 1929 the Canadians moved forward with the idea, creating a British Empire Games Committee as part of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada. Robinson led the Hamilton Games organizing committee, and a separate British Empire Games Association of Hamilton was created to provide opportunities for the public to assist the Games organizing committee with hospitality and with funding the Games.
The Canadians were able to convince eleven other nations to join in the first Games in Hamilton in 1930. Robinson is generally credited as the founder of the British Empire Games, and a high school in the neighboring city of Burlington is named after him.
From Empire to Commonwealth
The name of the Games and other symbols changed over time as the relationships of the nations involved changed from an Empire to a Commonwealth. From 1930 to 1950 the Games were called the British Empire Games, from 1954 to 1966 they were called the British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and from 1970 to 1986, they were called the British Commonwealth Games. Since 1990, the Games have been known as the Commonwealth Games.
The original governing body of the Games, the British Empire Games Federation, was formed during meetings at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. That body is now known as the Commonwealth Games Federation.
The Games flag has also changed to reflect modern sentiments. The Games emblem since 1954 had consisted of a chain surrounding a crown, which to some symbolized the strong links between Commonwealth nations. Others came to see the links as symbolizing colonial bonds that needed to be tossed off. The emblem was changed to a torch symbol in 2001.
History of Commonwealth Games
Since the games began in 1930, they have often been surrounded by controversy due to protests over the apartheid policy of South Africa. The issue of South African participation persisted in the Commonwealth Games (and in international sports) for much of the twentieth century.
1930 TO 1946: POLITICAL PROBLEMS
After the successful 1930 Games in Hamilton, the 1934 Games were scheduled to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. However, the government policy of apartheid spurred protests and the Games were switched to London.
Sydney, Australia, hosted the 1938 British Empire Games. The February dates were convenient for the hosts, but out of season for the northern hemisphere guests. Australia used this advantage to top the medals table for the first time. Montreal, Canada, was chosen as the 1942 Games host, but the 1942 and 1946 Games were halted because of World War II.
1950 AND 1954: BREAKING RECORDS
When the Games resumed in 1950, Auckland, New Zealand, served as the host. Auckland chose the option of a grass track, conventional in New Zealand, but rare in other parts of the world. Skeptics were silenced when nine Empire Games records were broken, though it had been nearly twelve years since the last Games. England’s Jack Holden ran the last seven miles of the marathon in his bare feet, after rain had ruined his shoes, and still won by more than four minutes.
The 1954 Games in Vancouver, Canada, became famous for the duel between Roger Bannister of England and John Landy of Australia over the mile distance. Both men had broken the four-minute-mile barrier earlier that year—Bannister first, and the first ever to do so, and then Landy took the world record from him six weeks later. In Vancouver, Bannister bested Landy in the first race, with the two men running under four minutes in the mile.
1958: CARDIFF, WALES
The 1958 Games in Cardiff saw the introduction of the Queen’s baton and relay, in which a baton was carried from Buckingham Palace, around the perimeter of Wales, to Cardiff.The Queen began the relay by inserting her message inside the baton at Buckingham Palace, and then the message was removed and read as part of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies. Since then, the relay has grown even more lengthy and complex.
Demonstrations against the South African team, which had no black members, took place in both Cardiff and London. South Africa withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1961, preempting its probable expulsion, and it did not return to the Commonwealth Games until 1994.
1962: PERTH, AUSTRALIA
The Games were again hosted by Australia in 1962, with Perth as host. In Perth a proposal was made to hold future Commonwealth Games during the Olympic year, a few weeks before the Olympics, in a Commonwealth city close to where the Olympics were to be held. The goal was to reduce travel costs, but the proposal was not approved. For the Games village, the government of Western Australia held a competition and built 150 homes from the winning design. The homes were sold at public auction after the Games.
1966: KINGSTON, JAMAICA
The first Games to be held outside of Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand were the 1966 Games in Kingston. Jamaica, newly independent from Great Britain in 1962, proved doubters wrong who said that it was too small to host the Games. Jamaica could not provide television broadcasting facilities so the visiting broadcasters brought their own equipment and technicians. But Jamaica’s new swimming pool was state of the art and one of the fastest in the world, and it saw fifteen new world records.
At the Edinburgh, Scotland, Games four years later, metric measurements were used for the first time, bringing the Games in line with international standards.
1974: CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND
At the 1974 Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, security was strict in direct response to the terrorist attacks which occurred at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Christchurch made up for the added tension with its hospitality, even providing equipment and bicycles for Uganda’s cycling team, who showed up empty-handed at the Games. Tanzania’s Filbert Bayi bested New Zealand’s John Walker in the 1,500-meter event, but both broke the 1,500-meter world record. Bayi won in 3:32.2, with Walker second in 3:32.5. Kenya’s Ben Jipcho finished third in 3:33.2, adding a bronze to his gold medals in the steeplechase and 5,000-meter event.
1978: EDMONTON, CANADA
Edmonton, Canada, hosted the 1978 Games. It built a Commonwealth stadium for 20 million dollars, which it considered a bargain after the financial debacle of the Montreal Olympic Games. Stung by the African boycott of the 1976 Olympic Games, Canada worked extremely hard to prevent another full-scale boycott. In June of 1977, Commonwealth representatives met in Gleneagles, Scotland, and devised an agreement formally known as the Commonwealth Statement on Apartheid in Sport.The primary function of the agreement was to stop all sporting contacts with South Africa by other Commonwealth nations.
The Organization for African Unity (OAU) quickly gave its approval, but the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa (SCSA), led by Nigerian Abraham Ordia, was much harder to convince. In November 1977, the SCSA adopted a resolution endorsing African participation, but a few days before the Games, Nigeria announced that it would boycott them and tried to convince other nations to join the boycott. But Canadian diplomacy won the day and the African athletes participated in Edmonton.
Canada was rewarded by topping the medals table for the first and only time to date in Commonwealth Games history. Kenya’s Henry Rono, denied the opportunity to compete in both the Montreal and Moscow Olympic Games due to boycotts, won both the 5,000- meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase in Edmonton.
1982: BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
In 1982 Australia hosted the Games and succeeded in avoiding a large-scale African boycott by strongly condemning the 1981 tour of New Zealand by a South African rugby team and reaffirming the Gleneagles agreement. Several protests for aboriginal rights occurred during these Games, and about two hundred people were arrested trying to gain access to the main stadium.
1986: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
When the Games returned to Edinburgh in 1986, the question of apartheid in South Africa had still not been resolved.When a New Zealand rugby team embarked on a tour of South Africa, a violation of the Gleneagles agreement, African and Caribbean nations both moved to boycott the Edinburgh Games.
In an effort to try and placate the boycotting nations, distance runner Zola Budd and swimmer Annette Crowley, both South Africans intending to compete for Britain, were excluded from the Games. But the attempt failed, and thirty-two nations stayed home while twentysix took part.
1990: AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
In 1990 at the Auckland games, the African nations threatened to boycott yet again in protest of another British rugby and cricket tour to South Africa. Anver Versi, of the news magazine New African had made strong arguments against a boycott, noting that African victories in the world sport arena was far more important to advancing the status of Africans than “all the speechifying and politicking that goes on every day.” In the end, African nations went to Auckland and were successful. These Games saw the first drug scandals, when one Indian and two Welsh weight lifters tested positive.
1994: VICTORIA, CANADA
South Africa returned to the Commonwealth Games in 1994 in Victoria, Canada, after the apartheid government had been removed and the South Africans were able to send multiracial international sports teams. Hezekiah Sepeng became the first black South African to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games by taking the 800-meter silver. (In the Atlanta Olympic Games in the United States, Sepeng would win another silver medal and become the first black South African to win an Olympic medal.) Horace Dove-Edwin from the small African nation of Sierra Leone also ran extremely well, finishing just behind Linford Christie of England in the final. However, Dove-Edwin then failed his post-race drug test for the same drug Ben Johnson had been found using in Seoul, South Korea.
Disabled athletes were included in the Victoria Games with events in swimming, athletics, and lawn bowls. Separate Commonwealth Paraplegic Games had been held from 1962 until 1974.
1998: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
In 1998 the Commonwealth Games were held for the first time outside an English-speaking country. However, in Kuala Lumpur a weak economy created budget difficulties, there was a water shortage, and smoke from forest fires that raged out of control in neighboring Indonesia. This led several countries to threaten to move or cancel their participation, but Malaysia held firm, and the Queen’s baton was carried to the stadium on an elephant. It was presented to Prince Edward by Malaysia’s first-ever Commonwealth-medal winner, Koh Eng Tong, who had won a bronze medal in weight lifting in the 1954 Games.The Malaysian spectators gave the delegation from Singapore a cool welcome because of political difficulties, and Nigeria did not compete because the nation had been suspended from the Commonwealth council.
The Commonwealth Games Federation took a new direction by adding team sports to the Games: Cricket, rugby, netball, and men’s and women’s field hockey were added to the upcoming schedule.Team sports had previously been excluded from the Games to emphasize the idea that the Games were between individuals and not nations. A proposal to award prize money at the Games was discussed by the Commonwealth Games Federation, but rejected.
Forty-year-old Judy Oakes of England won the shot put gold medal, becoming the oldest woman to win a gold medal at the Games. This continued her amazing streak of medal-winning: In six straight Games, Oakes won the bronze medal in 1978, the gold medal in 1982, silver medals in 1986 and 1990, and the gold medal in 1994. Kenyan runners dominated the distance events to no one’s surprise, taking gold, silver, and bronze medals in both the steeplechase and the 5,000- meter event, and winning the 800-, 1,500- and 10,000- meter runs.
2002: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
Manchester, England, hosted well-run Games in 2002, but not without controversy. Several medals changed hands during and after the Games due to drug suspensions, and there were disputes over officiating in boxing, field hockey, swimming, and table tennis. Athletes from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, and Sierra Leone could not be found at the conclusion of the Games and were thought to have defected.Two female swimmers from Pakistan became the first Pakistani Muslim females to compete outside a Muslim country.They participated in swimming events wearing new high-tech bodysuits, which were less revealing and more in line with Muslim cultural norms. In the end, Manchester was praised for its organization. Organizers hoped that the Games would raise the profile of the London bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The Future
Melbourne, Australia, was named host of the 2006 Commonwealth Games after all other bidders dropped out. New Delhi, India, beat Hamilton, Canada, for the right to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Daniel Bell