Commonwealth Games: Commonwealth Games Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 1982

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.

[edit]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]}

[edit]Participating Nations

Countries and places which competed at the 1982 games

45 Commonwealth nations and territories took part at the 1982 Commonwealth Games.^[4]

[show]v · d · eCommonwealth Games Associations at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

[edit]Sports

Sports contested during the 1982 Commonwealth Games included the following:

Shooting | Swimming | Diving | Weightlifting | Wrestling

[edit]Highlights

[edit]Opening Ceremony (30 September)

Main article: 1982 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony

The ceremony at the QEII Stadium was held on a fine but extremely windy day.

[edit]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.

[edit]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.