The 1930 British Empire Games were the first of what later become known as the Commonwealth Games and Olympic medal winners were invited to compete. The Victorian [Australia] city of Melbourne was chosen to host the Games.
| Opening Ceremony … 16 Aug 1930 | Host City … Hamilton, Canada | Closing Ceremony … 23 Aug 1930 |
| Participants … 400 athletes, 11 Commonwealth Nations |
THE 1930 GAMES HAD participation by approximately 400 athletes from 11 countries. In comparison, the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam had over 3,000 athletes from 46 countries competing.
Women were restricted to competing in only the swimming events at the Games. This would be changed in the next Games in 1934.
The very first gold medallist in this, the very first Games, was Canadian Spike Smallacombe when he won the triple jump.
The opening ceremonies and many events were held at the Civic Stadium (now Ivor Wynne Stadium) in East Hamilton. Six sports were featured: track and field, bowls, boxing, rowing, swimming and diving, and wrestling.
The Games logo shows a Roman on a chariot with the British flag shown as a chariot wheel. In his left hand the Roman holds out a wreath. An athlete is shown running past him. The left side of the logo is a vertical column with the name of the 11 countries participating at the Games written on it.
Top 9 Countries By Total Medals
Host country listed in bold, Australia in green.
| Country |  |  |  | Total | |
| 1. | England | 25 | 23 | 13 | 61 |
| 2. | Canada | 20 | 15 | 18 | 54 |
| 3. | South Africa | 6 | 4 | 7 | 17 |
| 4. | Scotland | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
| 5. | New Zealand | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| 6 | Australia | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| 7 | Wales | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | British Guiana | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Ireland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Participating Teams
Countries attending this first British Empire Games were: Australia, Bermuda, British Guiana, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Newfoundland, Scotland, South Africa, Wales.
