Commonwealth Games Trivia
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58 free Commonwealth Games trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
The Commonwealth Games began in 1930 because a Hamilton newspaperman talked Canada into staging an 'Empire' meet, and it has since been renamed three times, boycotted twice, cancelled by a war and rescued by Glasgow. This quiz covers the whole story: the first gold medal in Hamilton, Bannister and Landy's Miracle Mile in Vancouver, the Baton Relay that started in Cardiff, Kingston's breakthrough in 1966, metric units in Edinburgh, security after Munich, the Nigerian and African boycotts, Kuala Lumpur's team sports, Delhi's budget, Usain Bolt in Glasgow, gender-equal Gold Coast, Birmingham 2022 and the slimmed-down Glasgow 2026 under King Charles. There are questions on the sports only the Commonwealth loves, on which six teams have never missed a Games, on mascots and opening ceremonies, and on Chad le Clos becoming the most decorated athlete in Games history. Easy questions suit anyone who has watched a Games on TV; the hard tier is for people who know which city was meant to host in 1942. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Games and its individual editions, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How often are the Commonwealth Games held?
Every four years
Every four years. The cycle has run since the first Games in 1930 and has been broken only twice, when the 1942 and 1946 editions were lost to the Second World War.
Q 02What were the Commonwealth Games called when they were first held in 1930?
The British Empire Games
The British Empire Games. The word 'Empire' stayed in the title until 1966, and was dropped as the Empire itself came to an end.
Q 03Which sport made its Commonwealth Games debut as late as Melbourne 2006?
Basketball
Basketball. It was left out again straight afterwards and did not return until Gold Coast 2018.
Q 04Which sport made its Commonwealth Games debut at Gold Coast 2018?
Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball. Organisers called it a fitting addition for a host city famous for its beaches, and it was one of the few changes to the programme from the previous Games in Glasgow.
Q 05Which team made its final Commonwealth Games appearance in 1994?
Hong Kong
Hong Kong had competed as a British territory since 1934. The 1997 handover to China took it out of the Commonwealth, so it lost the Games while keeping its own Olympic team.
Q 06Which breed of dog led each team into the stadium at the Glasgow 2014 opening ceremony?
Scottish terrier
Scottish terriers had to work hard for their moment: with only about 40 dogs for the 71 teams, some were sent round again to lead out a second.
Q 07Which London landmark hosted the 1911 Inter-Empire Championships, a forerunner of the Commonwealth Games?
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace staged the championships as part of the Festival of Empire, a summer-long show put on to celebrate the coronation of George V.
Q 08Which of these teams has competed at every Commonwealth Games since the first in 1930?
Wales
Wales has never missed a Games, one of only six teams to manage it. South Africa was shut out from 1962 to 1990 over apartheid, while India and Jamaica first competed in 1934.
Q 09Concerns over the treatment of Black and Asian athletes moved the 1934 Games to London from which city?
Johannesburg
Johannesburg lost the Games, yet South Africa did not walk away: it still sent its own team to compete in London.
Q 10Which city hosted the 1938 Games to mark 150 years of British settlement in Australia?
Sydney
Sydney timed the Games for its 150th anniversary celebrations. They were the last for twelve years, because the Second World War wiped out the next two editions.
Q 11Which Canadian city was due to host the 1942 Games before the Second World War cancelled them?
Montreal
Montreal never got its turn: the Games resumed in Auckland in 1950, and when they next came to Canada, in 1954, they went to Vancouver instead.
Q 12Which two runners both broke four minutes in the 'Miracle Mile' at Vancouver 1954?
Roger Bannister and John Landy
Roger Bannister and John Landy settled it on the last bend: Landy glanced left to find his rival just as Bannister swept past on the right, a moment now cast in bronze in Vancouver.
Q 13Which capital city's Games were the first to be opened with the Queen's Baton Relay?
Cardiff
Q 21Which newly independent neighbour of South Africa made its Games debut in 1994, as South Africa itself returned?
Namibia
Namibia had been ruled by its neighbour until 1990, so the two teams arrived together: one a newcomer, the other back after 36 years shut out over apartheid.
Q 22Which team sport made its Games debut at Kuala Lumpur 1998, the first edition to allow team sports?
Cricket
Cricket's debut was a one-off: South Africa took the gold, and the sport then vanished from the Games until a women's Twenty20 tournament arrived in 2022.
Q 23Which All Blacks giant won gold in the first Commonwealth Games sevens tournament, at Kuala Lumpur 1998?
Jonah Lomu
Cardiff had waited twelve extra years for its turn: it was due to stage the 1946 Games, which the Second World War cancelled.
Q 14Where does the Commonwealth Games baton relay traditionally begin?
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is where the monarch seals a message inside the baton, and it stays unread until the last runner hands it back at the opening ceremony.
Q 15Which mythical creature is Finnie, the mascot of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games?
Unicorn
A unicorn, Scotland's national animal, but Finnie's horn is a traffic cone: a nod to the cone that Glaswegians keep placing on the head of the city's Duke of Wellington statue.
Q 16Which Caribbean capital hosted the Games in 1966, the only time they have been held in the region?
Kingston
Kingston reshaped the programme as well as the map: rowing was dropped, and badminton made its Games debut there.
Q 17Which change did Edinburgh 1970 bring to the Commonwealth Games for the first time?
Metric distances
Metric distances replaced yards on the track in 1970, so the mile gave way to the 1500 metres.
Q 18Which attack made security the top priority at Christchurch 1974?
The Munich Olympics massacre of 1972
The Munich Olympics massacre of 1972, in which eleven Israeli team members died, led Christchurch to ring its athletes' village with guards and post police across the Games.
Q 19Nigeria boycotted the 1978 Edmonton Games over which country's sporting contacts with apartheid South Africa?
New Zealand
New Zealand's rugby tour of South Africa had already driven African nations out of the 1976 Olympics, and Edmonton's organisers spent the run-up trying to prevent a repeat.
Q 20Whose government's policy towards apartheid South Africa led 32 nations to boycott the 1986 Games?
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher's government would not change course, so more nations stayed away from Edinburgh than took part, most of them from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
Jonah Lomu took the gold while already living with the rare kidney disorder that would later halt his career and lead to a transplant in 2004.
Q 24Manchester 2002 was timed to coincide with which royal milestone?
Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee
Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee year saw her open the Games herself, taking the baton from six-year-old fundraiser Kirsty Howard, who was helped across the stadium by David Beckham.
Q 25Which Olympic rowing champion began the Manchester 2002 opening ceremony by beating a drum?
Sir Steve Redgrave
Sir Steve Redgrave struck the drum in the new City of Manchester Stadium, which was then handed to Manchester City, who left Maine Road to play there a year later.
Q 26Matilda, the 13-metre winking mascot wheeled into the Brisbane 1982 opening ceremony, was which animal?
Kangaroo
A kangaroo: Matilda was built over a forklift truck so she could roll around the stadium, and she ended up as a roadside attraction at a Queensland fuel station.
Q 27Which country was absent from Melbourne 2006 after quitting the Commonwealth following its 2002 suspension?
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe walked out in December 2003, when Robert Mugabe refused to accept a summit decision to keep his country suspended indefinitely.
Q 28As of 2026, which host city's Games, dogged by delays and corruption claims, were the most expensive in Commonwealth Games history?
Delhi
Delhi's budget ballooned to about 700 billion rupees from a first estimate of under 19 billion, and chief organiser Suresh Kalmadi was arrested in a corruption investigation the following year.
Q 29Which stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Commonwealth Games?
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium made headlines before a race was run: two weeks before the opening ceremony, a new footbridge beside it collapsed and injured more than 20 workers.
Q 30Which sprinting superstar set a Games record in the 4×100 m relay at Glasgow 2014?
Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt had begun training only six weeks earlier after an injury, so he skipped the individual sprints, ran just the relay and anchored Jamaica home five metres clear.