Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018
The international spotlight was on the Gold Coast recently as the city hosted the largest sporting event in Australia in a decade – the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018).
And shine we did.
More than 6600 athletes and officials from 71 Commonwealth nations and territories took part in 11 days of competition from 4 to 15 April 2018.
The GC2018 partnership included:
GC2018
- City of Gold Coast
- Queensland Government key agencies
- Department of State Development
- Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning
- Department of Tourism
- Major Events
- Small Business and the Commonwealth Games
- Queensland Police Service with other Emergency Service providers
- Department of Transport and Main Roads
- Australian Federal Government (Department of Health and Sport, and Australian Federal Police)
- Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC)
- Australian Commonwealth Games Association
- Commonwealth Games Federation.
GC2018 was one of the largest elite multi-sport events in the world, equivalent to staging 18 different sporting category world championships simultaneously. It was the biggest international sporting event staged in Australia in the past decade and the largest ever hosted by the Gold Coast.
It featured 10 compulsory sports (athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball, squash, rugby sevens, weightlifting) and eight optional sports (beach volleyball, basketball, cycling, gymnastics, shooting, table tennis, triathlon, wrestling). Unique to GC2018 was the full integration of para-competition into the program, including athletics, aquatics, lawn bowls and powerlifting.
All GC2018 sports events were held in existing and new or upgraded venues on the Gold Coast, with the exception of track cycling and shooting which were held in Brisbane, and preliminary rounds of basketball held in Townsville and Cairns.
Alongside the sport was Festival 2018, a dedicated arts and culture program. This program provided a fantastic opportunity for local artists to perform in an international event.
Find out more about how Festival 2018 contributed to our city's cultural development on our Cultural legacy page.