Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games - Broadcast Opening Sequence
Copyright (c) 2018 Commonwealth Games Federation
The Commonwealth Games came back to Australia as this time, the Gold Coast in Queensland served as the setting for the 21st edition held from 4 to 15 April 2018, and this marks the fifth time that Australia played host after 1938, 1962, 1982 and 2006.
The Gold Coast, a coastal Queensland city of almost 600,000 residents, is elected as host city on 11 November 2011 following a 43-27 decision by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), being selected over Hambantota in Sri Lanka. Many had sought the Sri Lankan bid as a surprise, given that Hambantota was devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and is undergoing a major face lift in hopes of the town recovering itself from the tragedy.
The Gold Coast Games attracted 4,426 athletes from 71 Commonwealth Games Associations, being there to take part in 275 events in 18 sports, which include the debuts for beach volleyball paratriathlon and women's rugby sevens. For the first time in the Games' history, integrated para-sport competitions were included in nine sports across a record 38 events.
The program was broadly similar to that of Glasgow four years earlier, but the difference here is that judo is dropped from the programme, while basketball is reintroduced after being absent in the past two Games. Prior to the next edition in Birmingham, England in 2022 as well as the 2024 Paris Olympics, these 2018 Games in the Gold Coast marked the first time that a major multi-sport competition has full gender equity in terms of medal events.
Hosts Australia finished these Games as overall winners, pocketing home 196 medals - 78 were golds. They topped the table ahead of England and India, which finished second and third respectively, and although Canada (4th) was third in the overall count with 82 medals of any color, they had equaled New Zealand (5th) for 15 gold medals each.
