Posted 26/03/2018 by Lauren Cook
The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be held on the Gold Coast from 4 to 15 April.
This will mark the 21st Commonwealth Games since it was first held in 1930, and the 5th time Australia has hosted – making Australia the nation that has hosted the most number of Commonwealth Games. Previously, Australia hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1938 (Sydney), 1962 (Perth), 1982 (Brisbane) and 2006 (Melbourne). The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be the first time the Games have been hosted in a regional Australian city.
18 sports and seven para-sports will compete at the games, including athletics, swimming, badminton, basketball, boxing, table tennis and weightlifting. For three sports – beach volleyball, para triathlon and women’s rugby sevens – it will be their Commonwealth Games debut.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games is also set to make history as the first major multi-sport Games to contest an equal number of men’s and women’s medal events. The integrated para-sport program for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games will be the most extensive in Commonwealth Games history.
More than 6,600 athletes and team officials from 70 Commonwealth nations and territories will come to the Gold Coast for the Games. However, this number may rise if the Commonwealth Games Federation approves The Gambia’s request to re-join the Commonwealth Games.
The Gambia did not compete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after withdrawing from the Commonwealth in 2013. However, after a change of government resulted in The Gambia re-joining the Commonwealth in 2016, they have petitioned to also re-join the Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth Games Federation is set to make a decision on 31 March 2018, giving athletes from The Gambia four days until the Games commence. The Commonwealth Games Federation President urged ‘all our members to carefully consider the proposed resolution and pave the way for Team Gambia to compete on the Gold Coast’.
The official Australian Team is made up of 473 athletes; 237 males and 236 females across 20 sports.
Athletes representing ‘Team Australia’ at the 2018 Commonwealth Games have come from all over Australia:
- 119 athletes from Queensland
- 118 athletes from New South Wales
- 114 athletes from Victoria
- 50 athletes from Western Australia
- 43 athletes from South Australia
- 19 athletes from the Australian Capital Territory, and
- 10 athletes from Tasmania.
For information on the athletes representing Australia at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, see the ‘Team Australia’ webpage. This webpage also provides some information on the sports the athletes are competing in, as well as limited geographical information for athletes in some sports.