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1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games

Multi-sport event in Vancouver, Canada

Field	Value
name	V British Empire and Commonwealth Games
logo	BECG1954 logo.jpg
host_city	Vancouver, Canada
nations	24
athletes	662
events	91
opening	30 July 1954
closing	7 August 1954
opened_by	Earl Alexander of Tunis
athlete_oath	Bill Parnell
closed_by	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
stadium	Empire Stadium
previous	[IV](1950-british-empire-games)
next	[VI](1958-british-empire-and-commonwealth-games)

Opening ceremony.<br>Attribution:Province newspaper

The 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 30 July to 7 August 1954. This was the fifth edition of the event that would eventually become known as the Commonwealth Games, the second post-war Games, the second Canadian Games after the inaugural event in Hamilton and the first event since the name change from British Empire Games took effect in 1952.

The main venue was the Empire Stadium, which had been specifically constructed for the games at the cost of £500,000. Work on the 25,000 seated stadium started in October 1953 and the keys were handed over to Stan Smith (General chairman of the games) on 12 July 1954.

The games were attended by 24 nations and 662 competitors. It was the first time that the games gained a television audience, when CBC and NBC transmitted pictures to an estimated 100 million North American viewers.

It was at these games that the "Miracle Mile" took place between Roger Bannister and John Landy at the Empire Stadium. This was the first time these two (and at that time the only two) sub-four-minute mile runners appeared in the same race, and also the first time two runners broke four minutes in the same race. On the same afternoon, Jim Peters, the holder of the world best time for the marathon, entered the stadium 17 minutes ahead of his nearest rival, but collapsed on his final lap, and never completed the race.

Venues

Opening and Closing Ceremonies: Empire Stadium, Hastings Park
Aquatics: Empire Pool, University of British Columbia, West Point Grey
Athletics: Empire Stadium
Boxing: Exhibition Forum
Cycling (track): Empire Oval (Broadway Bowl)
Cycling (road): 1155 East Broadway
Fencing: Lord Byng School Gym, West Point Grey
Lawn bowls: West Point Grey Bowling Club, New Westminster Lawn Bowling Club
Rowing: Vedder Canal, Chilliwack
Weightlifting: Exhibition Garden, Hastings Park
Wrestling: Kerrisdale Arena
Athletes' Village: University of British Columbia, West Point Grey

Participating teams

24 teams were represented at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

23px Australia
Bahamas: first appearance
Barbados: first appearance
Bermuda
British Guiana
Canada (host)
23px England
23px Fiji
Gold Coast: first appearance
23px Hong Kong
23px India
23px Jamaica
23px Kenya: first appearance
23px New Zealand
23px Nigeria
NIR Northern Ireland
Northern Rhodesia: first appearance
23px Pakistan: first appearance
Scotland Scotland
23px South Africa
Southern Rhodesia
Trinidad and Tobago
23px Uganda: first appearance
Wales Wales

Medal table

Sports

References

(13 July 1954). "Empire Stadium Ready". Hull Daily Mail.
"Commonwealth Games Federation – 1954 Commonwealth Games – Introduction".
(7 June 1954). "Growing Interest in Empire Games". Birmingham Daily Post.
(31 July 2014). "The Mega-event that Set a Pace for Vancouver". The Tyee.
(3 August 1954). "Wednesday at the BEG". Vancouver Sun.
(2 August 1954). "Tuesday at the BEG". Vancouver Sun.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1954-british-empire-and-commonwealth-games 1954-in-multi-sport-events sports-competitions-in-vancouver history-of-vancouver international-sports-competitions-hosted-by-canada commonwealth-games-in-canada 1954-in-canadian-sports july-1954-sports-events-in-canada august-1954-sports-events-in-canada 1950s-in-vancouver 1954-in-british-columbia

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