1982 Commonwealth Games
The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 30 September—9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named for Queen Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the venue which was used for the athletics and archery competitions during the Games.[1] Other events were held at the purpose-built Sleeman Sports Complex in Chandler.
The Chairman of the 1982 Commonwealth Games was Sir Edward Williams KCMG, KBE. Sir Edward later became the Commissioner General of Expo '88. He was also the Chairman of the Queensland Turf Club in the 80's until the early 90's.
The 1982 Commonwealth Games Logo was designed by Hugh Edwards,[2] who was the winner of a nation-wide competition held in 1978. The symbol is derived from the form of a bounding kangaroo. The three bands, forming stylized A's (for Australia), are in colours which are common to flags of many Commonwealth countries.
Matilda the kangaroo mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games was represented by a cartoon kangaroo,[3] and a gigantic 13-metre (42 feet 8 inches) high mechanical "winking" kangaroo, who travelled around the stadium and winked at the crowd.
The games were officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Bidding Cities
Bidding for the XII Commonwealth Games was held in Montreal at the 1976 Summer Olympics: Lagos (Nigeria), Brisbane (Australia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Birmingham (England).
Brisbane won the rights to stage the Games after the other candidate cities withdrew bids early in 1976.[citation needed]
The Montreal Summer Olympics were plagued with cost overruns and bidding on a sports festival anywhere in the world was not good politically.[citation needed]
Brisbane was awarded by default of being the only Candidate City left at the bid election. Nigeria's boycott of the Montreal Summer Olympics made Lagos' bid lobbying impractical.[citation needed]
Participating Nations
45 Commonwealth nations and territories took part at the 1982 Commonwealth Games.[4]
Sports
Sports contested during the 1982 Commonwealth Games included the following:
- Athletics | Archery | Badminton | Bowls | Boxing | Cycling |
- Shooting | Swimming | Diving | Weightlifting | Wrestling
Highlights
Opening Ceremony (30 September)
The ceremony at the QEII Stadium was held on a fine but extremely windy day.
Day 1 (1 October)
The first event of the Games was 100 km Road Trial in cycling. England won the Gold Medal in the event, and Australia won the Silver Medal — coming second to England by only six seconds.
Other sports which were contested on the first day of competition included swimming and diving, weightlifting, shooting and bowls.
Day 2 (2 October)
Sports contested included swimming, diving, weightlifting, shooting, cycling, bowls and archery.
The day was marred by both Australia and Canada being disqualified in the 4 x 100 metres relay in swimming (both problems occurring during change-overs. The medals awarded for this race went to England, Scotland and New Zealand.
Day 3 (3 October)
- (information about events to be added)
Day 4 (4 October)
Sports contested included swimming, diving, ŕcycling, athletics, archery, hammer throwing and shooting.
The day was marred when Canada was again disqualified, this time in the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay. Canada protested against the winners, Australia, as well as against their own disqualification.
Day 5 (5 October)
- (information about events to be added)
Day 6 (6 October)
- (information about events to be added)
Day 7 (7 October)
- (information about events to be added)
Day 8 (8 October)
- (information about events to be added)
Day 9 (9 October)
- (information about events to be added)
Closing Ceremony
Queen Elizabeth closed the Games during a colourful ceremony, which included parachute jumpers (who had originally been also intended as part of the Opening Ceremony display) jumping and landing in a special target area within the stadium and red, white and blue balloons. Matilda the Kangaroo also winked at the Queen. Following the closing of the Games, the Queen and Duke left the stand to be driven from the stadium. However, nobody wanted the Games to end and the Australian team formed a 'guard of honour' and ran beside and behind the car in which Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were travelling, as it circled the stadium several times before finally leaving. Team members from other countries also joined in running after the royal car.
Medals table
This is the full table of the medal count of the 1982 Commonwealth Games. These rankings sort by the number of gold medals earned by a country. The number of silvers is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze. If, after the above, countries are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically. This follows the system used by the IOC, IAAF and BBC.
| 1 |  Australia |
39 | 39 | 29 | 107 |
| 2 |  England |
38 | 38 | 32 | 108 |
| 3 |  Canada |
26 | 23 | 33 | 82 |
| 4 |  Scotland |
8 | 6 | 12 | 26 |
| 5 |  New Zealand |
5 | 8 | 13 | 26 |
| 6 |  India |
5 | 8 | 3 | 16 |
| 7 |  Nigeria |
5 | 0 | 8 | 13 |
| 8 |  Wales |
4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| 9 |  Kenya |
4 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| 10 |  Bahamas |
2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 11 |  Jamaica |
2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 12 |  Tanzania |
1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 13 |  Malaysia |
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 |  Fiji |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Hong Kong |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
 Zimbabwe |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 17 |  Northern Ireland |
0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 18 |  Uganda |
0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 19 |  Zambia |
0 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 20 |  Guernsey |
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 21 |  Bermuda |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Singapore |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Swaziland |
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Total | 143 | 141 | 153 | 437 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Medals by Event
For information about individual medal winners and events, see:
- Australia at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
- Athletics at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
- Archery medal winners at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
- Badminton at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
- Swimming at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
Aboriginal movement protests
The Brisbane Commonwealth Games were also noted by large-scale protests by the Aboriginal rights movement in Australia, which brought to the centre of international media attention the lack of land rights, poor living condition and suppression of personal and political rights in Queensland in particular, and in Australia as a whole.[5]. The protests, which were followed by large-scale arrests, are a significant event in the history of the Australian Aboriginal movement.
See also
- 1982 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony
- Australia at the Commonwealth Games
- Australia at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
- Canada at the 1982 Commonwealth Games
Footnotes
- ^ Information on QEII Stadium, the arena used for the games
- ^ The Games' Logo
- ^ Information on the mascot of the Games
- ^ Competing Countries 1982 List of nations that took part in the 1982 Games
- ^ Spencer Reiss with Carl Robinson, "Aborigines Vs. Queensland", Newsweek: International Edition, October 11 1982, p. 13
References
- "XII Commonwealth Games - The Official Pictorial History" —Channel 9 "Today Tonight", O & B Holdings Pty. Ltd., (1982)
External links
- Official website of the 1982 games
- Commonwealth Games Federation
- Australian Commonwealth Games Association
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