2022 - Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games kick off this month in Birmingham. Almost 5000 athletes, representing 72 teams from the 54 members of the Commonwealth Nations will compete in a variety of Olympic and non-Olympic sporting events. Running over 12 days, the Games brings together athletes from around the world and provides an opportunity to compete against elite competition under the lights of a world-renowned and historic competition.

The Games

4426 athletes within 72 teams will compete across 281 events and 20 sporting disciplines. Starting on the 28th of July and running until the 8th of August, events will take place in Birmingham and across the rest of the UK.

The History

Beginning as the Inter-empire Championships in 1911, the games as we know them took shape in 1930 and have run every four years since (except for 1942 and '46 due to the Second World War). The Games have always been one of the premier global sporting events, a feeder for the Olympics and an event which has pushed the boundary for sport's progression as a whole. The Games, in 2018, became the first global multi-sport event to have an equal number of women's and men's events. Committed to progress, they were also the first global multi-sporting event to have para-athletes as full members of the nation's teams, making it the first fully inclusive event of this type. For years, the nations of the Commonwealth have battled it, so far the most successful nation has been Australia with 2415 medals, 932 of which have been gold. Second in the standings is England with 2144 medals of which 714 are gold.

Who we're watching

Built-in Belfast. We are delighted to show our support for Team NI at the games. Earlier in the year, we chatted to Caroline Doyle and Hannah Crymble as they prepared for their games qualification, you can watch the full video here. Hannah will be competing in the Women's Weightlifting 59kg category. Currently ranked No.1 in NI and 5th in the national rankings, Hannah is hoping for a big performance at the games. So far, Hannah's best performance as a 59kg lifter came at the 2021 British Open Series where she totalled 181kg across her lifts. Caroline is also ranked No.1 in NI and is ranked fourth in the UK in the women's 64kg category. Her best competition total reached 184kg across her clean & jerk and snatch.

Hannah will be competing on the 31st of July at 4 pm, while Caroline's category kicks off the next day at 2 pm.

Earlier in the year, we caught up with the Team NI members before they went to the British Championships.