From the Archive: Commonwealth Games in Manchester

The Seventeenth Commonwealth Games opened in Manchester exactly seven years ago this week – the biggest multi-sport event to hit the UK ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.

At the opening ceremony in front of a crowd of nearly 40,000 as well as an estimated global television audience of one billion, Queen Elizabeth II, head of the Commonwealth, spoke of how the Games are “symbolic” of how the Commonwealth brings “people together”.

“We can all draw inspiration from what the Commonwealth stands for: our diversity as a source of strength; our tradition of tolerance, requiring respect for others and a readiness to learn from them; our focus on young people, for they are the future,” she said.

“These Games, the friendly Games, embody these values.”

Athletes from 72 Commonwealth countries and territories competed for medals in 14 individual sports and three team sports over the course of the event from 25 July to 4 August.

Also this week exactly 39 years ago, the Scottish city of Edinburgh played host to the Commonwealth Games. The 1970 Games was the first and penultimate Games to bear the moniker “British” and the first to incorporate metric distance measurements and electronic photo-finish technology.

Since the Games was first launched in Ontario, Canada, in 1930, it has undergone three name changes. First known as the British Empire Games, it later became the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954. It was renamed simply the Commonwealth Games in 1978.

The next Games will be held in Delhi in 2010.

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