The Birmingham Commonwealth Games begin on Thursday 28th July 2022, marking the 22nd Commonwealth Games. A billion people across the world are expected to tune into the opening ceremony, signalling the huge impact and exposure that sporting tournament brings.
To get into the celebrations at Nordens, we have put together our BusinessWealth Games social campaign. There are a lot of sporting analogies that work with what we do as business owners. Business owners and sporting professionals have so many traits in common.
Sport in itself is an occasion to bring people together, which is something we’re all about here at Nordens, and we wanted to celebrate the Commonwealth Games in a unique yet useful way. Each day we’ll be posting on our socials (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) covering some very useful topics which are relevant in business, accountancy and beyond.
For now though, let’s do the Commonwealth Games some justice and break down exactly what it is and the history of the tournament…
What Are The Commonwealth Games?
The Commonwealth Games, or the affectionately named Friendly Games, is a global sporting event which features athletes from the commonwealth nations. Stretching back nearly 100 years now, the first Commonwealth Games was held in Hamilton, Canada in 1930 and was known as the ‘British Empire Games’. The Games run every 4 years, with 72 nations competing across 19 different sports. Over 5000 athletes will be competing in 280 medal events across 11 days, all held within one of Britain’s most populous cities, Birmingham.
The Commonwealth Games have been home to some of the greatest and most memorable sporting achievements over the past century; In 1954, Roger Bannister famously beat John Landy in Vancouver in what came to be known as the ‘Miracle Mile’ with both men shattering the 4 minute mile barrier; A 16-year-old Cathy Freeman ran her way into the history books at Auckland in 1990 when she became the first female Aboriginal ever to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the 4×100 metres; And who could forget in 2014 when Nicola Adams marked women’s boxing debut at the Commonwealths with a gold in Glasgow?
The games are filled with outstanding achievements, which often transcend beyond sport itself. This year, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is in charge of delivering the opening ceremony, held at Alexander Stadium in front of 30,000 spectators and an estimated 1.5 billion TV audience.
Starting from the first host city of Hamilton in Canada, the Games have been held in lots of the major Commonwealth Countries. Canada went on to hold the games a further three times in Vancouver in 1954, Edmonton in 1978 and Victoria in 1994. Australia have held the most Commonwealths, Sydney in 1938, Perth 1962, Brisbane 1982 and Melbourne in 2006. 1998 saw Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia host the games for the first time in an Asian country, whilst in 2010, the games returned to Asia and were held in Delhi.
In Birmingham, Women’s T20 cricket, 3×3 basketball and 3×3 wheelchair basketball will all make their debuts as events. Birmingham 2022 will also feature the largest number of events for women (136) and Para-sport athletes (42) in its history.
The BusinessWealth Games
This year’s Commonwealth Games is expected to focus on and celebrate the diversity and mixed melting pot of culture which makes up Birmingham. Sport is such a uniting thing which can symbolise the human spirit like no other spectacle, and we wanted to champion that. The BusinessWealth Games campaign sees us cover a vast array of topics from dealing with financial worries to making your business more sustainable.
Each day we will be posting a new sport with a bit of a tongue in cheek twist, relating it to a topic we feel is relevant to you and your business.
We hope this has outlined to you the history of the Commonwealth Games, as well as Nordens’ upcoming BusinessWealth Games campaign. If you’d like to know any further information on anything mentioned, or anything accounting related for that matter, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us at Nordens, where one of our trusted advisors would be happy talking you through your query.
