 | |
| Host city | Brisbane, Australia |
|---|---|
| Motto | The Friendly Games |
| Nations | 46 |
| Athletes | 1,583 |
| Events | 141 events in 12 sports |
| Opening | 30 September 1982 |
| Closing | 9 October 1982 |
| Opened by | Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh |
| Athlete's Oath | Tracey Wickham |
| Queen's Baton Final Runner | Raelene Boyle |
| Main venue | QEII Stadium |
The1982 Commonwealth Games were held inBrisbane, Australia, from 30 September to 9 October 1982. TheOpening Ceremony was held at theQEII Stadium (named afterElizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb ofNathan. The QEII Stadium was also theathletics andarchery events venue.[1] Other events were held at the purpose-builtSleeman Sports Complex inChandler.
The Chairman of the 1982 Commonwealth Games wasSir Edward Williams.[2] The 1982 Commonwealth Games Logo was designed by Hugh Edwards.[3][4][5] The symbol is derived from the form of a boundingkangaroo. The three bands, forming stylized A's (for Australia), and is in colours which are common to flags of manyCommonwealth countries.
The mascot for the games was also designed by Hugh Edwards and is a caricature of a kangaroo was named Matilda.[6] A 13-meter-high (43-foot) mechanical kangaroo travelled around the stadium andwinked at the crowd.
The event was officially opened byThe Duke of Edinburgh and closed by Elizabeth II.
Bidding for the XII Commonwealth Games was held inMontreal,Canada, at the1976 Montreal Summer Olympics.Lagos,Brisbane,Kuala Lumpur, andBirmingham were the bidding cities. On 14 July 1976, it was announced that Brisbane had won the rights to stage the Games[7] after the other candidate cities withdrew bids. Sixteen years after the Brisbane Games, Kuala Lumpur hosted the1998 Commonwealth Games, while Birmingham hosted the2022 Commonwealth Games.
Brisbane was awarded the Games by default after being the only candidate city left at the bid election after Birmingham reversed its decision to submit an application.[7]Nigeria's boycott of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal made Lagos' bid lobbying impractical.[8] The 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal were plagued with cost overruns, and bidding on a sports festival anywhere in the world was not good politically.[9]
Forty-six Commonwealth nations and territories took part in the 1982 Commonwealth Games.[10] A total of 1,583 athletes and 571 officials participated in the event.[11] TheGriffith University student dormitories in the adjoining Nathan Campus were used as athletes' villages.[12]
| Participating Commonwealth countries and territories |
|---|
|
| Debuting Commonwealth countries and territories |
^ Note: The Falkland Islands debut at the games was less than four months after theFalklands War. |
Main Venues
Standalone Venues
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The ceremony at theQEII Stadium was held on a fine but extremely windy day. The wind was so strong that skydivers who were going to descend into the stadium were cancelled.[11] Instead they made an entrance at the closing ceremony.
Elizabeth II 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 the 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.[19] Team members from other countries also joined in running after the royal car.
Sports contested during the 1982 Commonwealth Games includedathletics,archery,badminton,lawn bowls,boxing,cycling,shooting,swimming,diving,weightlifting andwrestling.[18]
Table tennis andAustralian rules football were demonstration sports,[20] with the latter being demonstrated at a 6 October rematch at theGabba ofthat year's VFL Grand Final, which took place just 11 days before at theMelbourne Cricket Ground.Richmond won the demonstration rematch with a score of 28.16 (184) toCarlton's 26.10 (166).[21]
Archery (details)
Athletics (details)
Badminton (details)
Boxing (details)
Cycling (details)
Lawn bowls (details)
Shooting (details)
Weightlifting (details)
Wrestling (details)This is the full table of themedal count of the1982 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 theIOC,IAAF andBBC.
* Host nation (Australia)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Australia (AUS)* | 39 | 39 | 29 | 107 |
| 2 |  England (ENG) | 38 | 38 | 32 | 108 |
| 3 |  Canada (CAN) | 26 | 23 | 33 | 82 |
| 4 |  Scotland (SCO) | 8 | 6 | 12 | 26 |
| 5 |  New Zealand (NZL) | 5 | 8 | 13 | 26 |
| 6 |  India (IND) | 5 | 8 | 3 | 16 |
| 7 |  Nigeria (NGR) | 5 | 0 | 8 | 13 |
| 8 |  Wales (WAL) | 4 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| 9 |  Kenya (KEN) | 4 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| 10 |  Bahamas (BAH) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 11 |  Jamaica (JAM) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 12 |  Tanzania (TAN) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 13 |  Hong Kong (HKG) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
 Malaysia (MAS) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 15 |  Fiji (FIJ) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Zimbabwe (ZIM) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 17 |  Northern Ireland (NIR) | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
| 18 |  Uganda (UGA) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 19 |  Zambia (ZAM) | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 20 |  Guernsey (GUE) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 21 |  Bermuda (BER) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
 Eswatini (SWZ) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
 Singapore (SIN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (23 entries) | 143 | 141 | 154 | 438 | |
The first event of the Games was 100 kilometres (62 mi) Road Trial in cycling.England won theGold Medal in the event, and Australia won theSilver 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.
Sports contested included swimming, diving, weightlifting, shooting, cycling, bowls and archery.
The day was marred by bothAustralia andCanada being disqualified in the 4 × 100 metres relay in swimming, both problems occurring during change-overs. The medals awarded for this race went toEngland,Scotland and New Zealand.
Sports contested included swimming, diving, cycling, athletics, archery, hammer throwing and shooting.
The day was marred when Canada was again disqualified, this time in the 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay. Canada protested against the winners, Australia, as well as against their own disqualification.
The Brisbane Commonwealth Games were also noted by large-scale protests by theAboriginal rights movement in Australia, which brought to the centre of international media attention the lack ofIndigenous land rights in Australia, poor living condition and suppression of personal and political rights in Queensland in particular, and in Australia as a whole.[22] One of the targets of the protests was Queensland'sAborigines Act 1971,[23] which restricted and controlled the lives of Aboriginal people in Queensland.[24]
There were large marches on 26 September (2,000 people), 20 September (1000), and a sit-in of 104 people on 4 October. Also on that day, around 20 spectators heldAboriginal flags in the stadium during the entire program. On 7 October, about 500 people attended another protest, and 400 police arrested 260 people, including then Governor-General's daughter, Ann Stephen.[25] The protests were all peaceful, but police came out in force and blocked roads, making arrests under Queensland'sTraffic Act.[26]
Activists taking part in the protests includedGary Foley[23] and Bob Weatherall (both leaders of the protest);Billy Craigie;[26]Lyall Munro Jnr;[27]Ross Watson;[25] Wayne Wharton;[28] and Selwyn Johnson and his family. Selwyn's brother Hedley Johnson was a musician, of the Brisbane groupMop and the Dropouts. Their song, "Brisbane Blacks", written by Mop Conlon, became a kind ofanthem for the protests.[29][30][31]
Bob Weatherall, aKamilaroi elder, is a lifelong activist,[32] a researcher in Aboriginal history,[33] and musical collaborator with Brisbane bandHalfway[34]
The protests, which were followed by large-scale arrests, are a significant event in the history of the Australian Aboriginal rights movement.[35][36][37] When the Commonwealth Games returned to Australia in2018 at the Gold Coast, it drew a series of peaceful protests.[25][28]
The classic Australian film"Guniwaya Ngigu (We Fight)" documents the Aboriginal protest movement during the Commonwealth Games, and was directed by Madeline McGrady andTracey Moffatt, and produced byMaureen Watson,Tiga Bayles and Madeline McGrady.
In 2009 as part of theQ150 celebrations, the 1982 Commonwealth Games were announced as one of theQ150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Defining Moment".[38] Brisbane alsobid for the1992 Summer Olympics but lost toBarcelona.QueenslandPremierAnnastacia Palaszczuk announced on 9 December 2019 that the state will make an official bid for the2032 Summer Olympics andParalympics featuring venues across Brisbane,Gold Coast andSunshine Coast.[39][40] In 2021, the city won the bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.[41]
Saturday, 12 August 2016, Moree, New South Wales.
| Preceded by Edmonton | Commonwealth Games Brisbane XII Commonwealth Games | Succeeded by Edinburgh |
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