1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games

V British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Host cityVancouver, Canada
Nations24
Athletes662
Events91
Opening30 July 1954
Closing7 August 1954
Opened byEarl Alexander of Tunis
Closed byPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Athlete's OathBill Parnell
Main venueEmpire Stadium

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. Other bids to stage the Games were received from Toronto, Montreal and Hamilton.[1]

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.[2]

The games were attended by 24 nations and 662 competitors.[3] 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.[4]

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

[5][4]

Participating teams

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

Medal table

Medals won by nation, ranked and sortable
RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 England23242067
2 Australia20111748
3 South Africa1661335
4 Canada*9201443
5 New Zealand77519
6 Scotland62513
7 Southern Rhodesia2215
8 Trinidad and Tobago2204
9 Northern Ireland2103
10 Northern Rhodesia1438
11 Nigeria1337
12 Pakistan1326
13 Wales1157
14 Jamaica1001
15 Barbados0101
 Hong Kong0101
 Uganda0101
18 British Guiana0011
Totals (18 entries)928989270

Sports

References

  1. ^ "TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts". www.tvo.org.
  2. ^ "Empire Stadium Ready". Hull Daily Mail. 13 July 1954. Retrieved 20 September 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "Commonwealth Games Federation – 1954 Commonwealth Games – Introduction". thecgf.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
  4. ^ a b "The Mega-event that Set a Pace for Vancouver". The Tyee. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  5. ^ "Growing Interest in Empire Games". Birmingham Daily Post. 7 June 1954. Retrieved 20 September 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ a b "Wednesday at the BEG". Vancouver Sun. 3 August 1954. p. 14. Retrieved 20 September 2025 – via Google Newspapers.
  7. ^ a b c d "Tuesday at the BEG". Vancouver Sun. 2 August 1954. p. 12. Retrieved 20 September 2025 – via Google Newspapers.
Preceded by
Auckland 		British Empire and Commonwealth Games
Vancouver
V British Empire and Commonwealth Games 		Succeeded by
Cardiff
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