The history of the Commonwealth Games has been briefly described below with some interesting facts about the relative account of the history and the latest edition of the games.
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- As of 2014, there are 71 countries in the Commonwealth, containing about one quarter of the world’s population. All of these nations are expected to be a part of the Glasgow Games.
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- The 2014 edition will be the 20th version of the Commonwealth Games. The first was hosted in 1930 at Hamilton, Canada and was known as the British Empire Games.
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- There will be 6,500 athletes from 71 nations competing in 17 sports over 11 days. That is in stark comparison to the figure from the 1930 edition, when only 400 athletes from 11 countries took part.
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- There have been two previous instances of Scotland hosting this quadrennial event; Edinburgh played host on both the occasions in 1970 and 1986.
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- Australia however, holds the record for being the host most number of times. It has hosted the event on a record four occasions, and will soon make it five when Gold Coast hosts the event in 2018.
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- Australia are the leaders in the overall medals tally, with an astonishing 803 Gold medals and more than 2,000 medals.
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- There are four nations who have won just one Commonwealth medal. Amongst them, Gambia and the Norfolk Islands sit at the bottom of the overall tally with a single Bronze.
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- The host Scotland currently sits seventh on the all-time medals table with 92 Gold, 104 Silver and 160 Bronze medals.
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- In the previous edition in Delhi, Scotland managed just nine gold medals. Jonathan Hammond (shooting) was the star performer, for raking in two Golds, a Silver and a Bronze.
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- Greg Yelavich, a shooter from New Zealand, is expected to compete in a record eighth Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He has won 12 medals (first appearance was in Edinburgh, in 1986 and latest appearance was in Delhi, in 2010).
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