Gold Coast: Facts on the Commonwealth Games to be held in Australia’s Gold Coast:
When?
April 4-15, 2018
Where?
* The majority of the events will be held in three clusters on the Gold Coast, with the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics at the Carrara Stadium.
* Track cycling and the shooting competitions will be held in Brisbane.
* Preliminary round games in the basketball competition will be held in Townsville and Cairns, in the far-North of Queensland.
By the numbers
* 18 sports; seven para-sports
* 10 core sports — athletics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, squash, swimming, weightlifting.
* Eight optional sports — basketball, beach volleyball, cycling, gymnastics, shooting, table tennis, triathlon, wrestling.
* 275 gold medals
* 6,600-plus athletes
* 71 nations and territories
Commonwealth Games
* First contested in 1930 as The Empire Games (a title that lasted until in 1950) in Hamilton, Ontario. Just 400 athletes from 11 countries attended.
* Contested every four years, except for 1942 and 1946 due to World War Two, until 1950. Was renamed as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1952 with the 1954 event in Vancouver the first to use the title.
* The last BE&C Games were held in Kingston in 1966, the first time they had been held outside of Britain, Australia, Canada or New Zealand.
* Renamed the Commonwealth Games for the 1978 Edmonton event.
* Kuala Lumpur becomes the first Asian city to host the Games in 1998.
* Questions raised over the future of the Games after the 2010 event in Delhi is blighted by construction delays, budget over-runs, poor living conditions at the athletes’ village, a number of high-profile withdrawals and low spectator numbers.
* Only one city, South Africa’s Durban, bid for the 2022 event, with the bid rubber-stamped at Commonwealth Games Federation meeting in Auckland in 2015 giving Africa its first Games.
* The coastal city, however, was stripped of the event last March after a failure to meet promises contained in its bid, with the 2022 event awarded to Birmingham.
The Gold Coast Games
* Bid was initiated by the Queensland state premier Anna Bligh in 2008.
* Was the only bidder until Sri Lankan city Hambantota entered the race in 2010.
* Awarded the 2018 event on Nov. 11, 2011, becoming the fifth Ausralian city to host the Commonwealth Games (Sydney, 1938; Perth, 1962; Brisbane, 1982; Melbourne 2006)
* More than 80 percent of the venues had already been built prior to the bid being awarded.
* State and local government invested more than A$1 billion ($767.80 million) in upgrading the public transport system, with an extension to the light rail tram network connecting key venues.
* The mascot Borobi is a blue koala with indigenous markings on its body. Borobi is an Aboriginal term for koala.
* Beach volleyball and women’s sevens are making their debut.
