1982 Commonwealth Games

12th Commonwealth Games
Host city	Brisbane, Australia
Nations participating	45 Nations of the Commonwealth
Athletes participating	1,580
Events	143 events in 12 sports
Opening ceremony	September 30, 1982
Closing ceremony	October 9, 1982
Officially opened by	The Duke of Edinburgh
Queen's Baton Final Runner	Raelene Boyle
Main Stadium	QEII Stadium
Motto	The Friendly Games

Matilda the Kangaroo mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games (shown here during her circuit of the track at the stadium during the Games Opening Ceremony, and with a silhouette of Matilda and several joey kangaroos on a large screen, during Rolf Harris' segment)

Matilda turns her head and winks at the spectators during the Opening Ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games

The music soundtrack of the Opening Ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, Brisbane, Queensland — (Audio tape cover). The pictures are of the 1982 Commonwealth Games Logo and Matilda, the 1982 Commonwealth Games Mascot

The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named for Queen Elizabeth II). The stadium, which was later renamed the ANZ Stadium, is now called the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre. The stadium is at the Brisbane suburb of Nathan.

The 1982 Commonwealth Games Logo was designed by Hugh Edwards, 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, and a gigantic 13-metre (42 feet 8 inches) high mechanical "winking" kangaroo], who travelled around the stadium and winked at the crowd, and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Highlights

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.

For information about the full ceremony, see the 1982 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

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

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 - 6 October

(information about events to be added)

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 the car circled the stadium several times before finally leaving. Team members from other countries also joined in the running after the royal car.

Sports

Sports contested during the 1982 Commonwealth Games included the following:

Athletics | Archery | Badminton | Bowls | Boxing | Cycling |

Shooting | Swimming | Diving | Weightlifting | Wrestling

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.

Pos	Country				Total
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
14	Hong Kong	1	0	0	1
14	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
21	Singapore	0	0	1	1
21	Swaziland	0	0	1	1
		143	141	153	437

Medals by Event

For information about individual medal winners and events, see:

Australia at the 1982 Commonwealth Games

See also

Matilda

• 1982 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

• Australia at the 1982 Commonwealth Games

• Australia at the Commonwealth Games

Participating Nations

Countries and places which competed at the 1982 games

45 Commonwealth nations and territories took part at the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

For an official listing of the participating countries, see [1].

Bids for the 1982 Commonwealth Games

In 1976, the bidding cities for the XIIth Commonwealth Games were: Lagos (Nigeria), Brisbane (Australia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Birmingham (England). Brisbane won the rights to stage the Games.

Trivia

The commemorative poster, with the picture of Matilda during the Opening Ceremony of 1982 Commonwealth Games, was published by "The Courier-Mail".

The black and white photo of Matilda winking at spectactors during the Opening Ceremony of 1982 Commonwealth Games, was published by "The Weekend Australia".

The massive Matilda prop from the opening ceremony is now located at Wet'n'Wild Water World, a water park in the Gold Coast hinterland.

External links

• 1982 Commonwealth Games - Commonwealth Games official website
• 1982 Commonwealth Games Sports Program - Commonwealth Games official website
• Queen's Baton relay - Commonwealth Games official website
• 1982 Commonwealth Games - Host Cities and Countries of the Commonwealth Games
• 1982 Commwealth Games and Warana Festival - Brisbane City Council official website
• Commonwealth Games Federation
• Australian Commonwealth Games Association
• Archery Gold Medal winner at the 1982 Commonwealth Games - MSN Encarta Encyclopedia
• 1982 Commonwealth Games - including information about the Opening Ceremony - Australian Rowing History
• The ABC coverage of the 1982 Commonwealth Games - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• 1982 Commonwealth Games - The Games History
• About the former QEII Stadium, which was used for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and for the Atletics competition - Australian Stadiums website

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