History of Commonwealth Games

History of Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games has undergone lots of changes in the past, even in its name, to come up to this point today. The idea of this game was introduced in 1981 by Reverend Astley Cooper. He thought of organizing a sporting event including the members of the British Empire to strengthen understanding and increasing goodwill among the nations. The first game of this kind was held in 1911 during the Festival of Empire in London to celebrate the coronation of King George V. An Inter-Empire Championships was held in the festival including teams from United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada and Australia. Various sports such as athletics, boxing, swimming and wrestling were conducted in the event. Canada won the tournament and was awarded with a silver trophy of 2 ft 6 inches high and weighing 21.25 lbs. 

The first Commonwealth Games was organized by Melville Marks Robinson. It was held in 1930 in the name of British Empire Games at Hamilton, Canada. Around 400 athletes from 11 nations have participated in that sporting event. The city of Hamilton provided $30,000 for accomplishing the expenses of visiting countries. The first successful event of the Commonwealth Games supplied sufficient incentive to make it a regular happening. Since 1930, Commonwealth Games were organized at an interval of four years except in 1942 and 1946 during the World War II. In 1954, the British Empire Games was renamed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games. The title again changed to British Commonwealth Games in 1970. It gained its current title “Commonwealth Games” in 1978. While all other major sporting events are based on geographical area and climatic factors such as Asian Games, African Games and Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games are based on history. The teams of the Commonwealth Games share a common language, i.e. English. The history of Commonwealth Games has been such for so long that it is also regarded as the “Friendly Games”

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