2014 Commonwealth Games

Bidding process

Scotland was the first country to consider hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games in 2004, with Scottish cities being invited by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland to consider making a bid. In September 2004, Glasgow was announced as the Scottish candidate city over Edinburgh (which hosted the Games in 1970 and 1986, and the inaugural Commonwealth Youth Games in 2000) following a cost-benefit analysis by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland. The Scottish Executive under then First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, with the support of the United Kingdom government and all main parties in the Scottish Parliament, formally announced Glasgow's intention to host the games on 16 August 2005.

In March 2006, the bidding process began, with the Glasgow Bidding team presenting their case to the Commonwealth Games Federation at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, along with the other confirmed candidate cities; the Nigerian capital, Abuja and Halifax in Canada. In October 2006, the first voting delegates arrived in Glasgow, to inspect the city's existing and proposed amenities and facilities. Glasgow announced on 16 January 2007, the 17 sports to be included should its bid be successful. Halifax later withdrew its bid on 8 March 2007, following the withdrawal of funding from the municipal government.

That left Abuja and Glasgow as the remaining bidders, with Abuja seen as a likely favourite due to the basis of its campaign that an African nation has never before hosted the Commonwealth Games. The deadline for formal submission of bids to the Commonwealth Games Federation, in the form of a Candidate City File, was set for May 2007. Both bids were highly recommended, though Glasgow's bid team had made use of extensive benchmarking against the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and as a result, its bid was deemed technically superior according to the CGF Evaluation Report that was released in September 2007. The Commonwealth Games Evaluation Commission concluded that: "Glasgow has shown it has the ability to stage the 2014 Commonwealth Games to a standard which would continue to enhance the image and prestige of the Games." This put Glasgow ahead in terms of the technical comprehensiveness of its bid.

The final decision on the host city of the 2014 Commonwealth Games was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 9 November 2007 at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly, attended by all 71 Commonwealth Games member associations. Each bid city made a presentation to the General Assembly, the order of which was determined by drawing lots. Glasgow's delegation was led by Louise Martin, chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland, First Minister Alex Salmond, athlete Jamie Quarry and Leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell. The presentation also included a promotional film narrated by Sean Connery. Abuja's delegation was led by General Yakubu Gowon, head of the Abuja 2014 Commonwealth Games bid team.

The CGF members later voted for their preferred candidate in a secret ballot. As there were only two bids, the winner was announced by the CGF President, Mike Fennel, after the first round of voting, with the winner only requiring a simple majority. The results of the bidding process were as follows:

Venues

The Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome precinct is situated at Parkhead in the East End of the city, the velodrome itself is opposite Celtic Park, which was used for the opening ceremony. These venues hosted the Badminton as well as Track cycling. The Road cycling and Cycling Time-trial events started and finished at Glasgow Green. Glasgow Green was the venue for Field hockey and saw the construction of a new Glasgow Green Hockey Centre. Tollcross International Swimming Centre, was the venue for Swimming events. It already had one Olympic standard 50 metre swimming pool, which was extensively upgraded, and a second 50-metre pool was added for the Games as a warm-up facility. The existing permanent seating capacity was increased by 1,000. Combined with additional temporary seating there was over 5,000 seats for the Games.

Ibrox Stadium, in the South Side, was the venue for the Rugby Sevens tournament. Mountain biking was held on the Cathkin Braes in Rutherglen, the Royal Burgh neighbouring the City. The Marathon began and ended at Hampden Park in the South Side, which hosted all the track and field events as well as the closing ceremony.

The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, located in the West End of the city, hosted the Wrestling, Judo and Boxing, as well as the Main Press Centre and the International Broadcast Centre, benefiting from its strategic position adjacent to the headquarters of BBC Scotland and STV at Pacific Quay. The Clyde Auditorium hosted Weightlifting, whilst the new SSE Hydro was used for the Gymnastics and Netball events. Kelvingrove Park, also in the city's West End, was the venue for Bowls and has five bowling greens installed for competitive use. A comprehensive upgrade and refurbishment of the park was completed ahead of the Games. Scotstoun Leisure Centre hosted Table tennis and Squash.

The Shooting competitions took place at the Ministry of Defence full-bore rifle and clay target ranges at Barry Buddon, near Dundee, which were also used in the 1986 Commonwealth Games. There were temporary ranges built for the small-bore rifle and pistol events. Diving was held at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, located 45 miles (72 km) to the east, which held the annual Edinburgh Festival at the same time as the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Strathclyde Country Park, beside Hamilton and Motherwell, hosted the Triathlon event.

Athlete's village

The Athletes Village for the 2014 Commonwealth Games was situated on a 35 hectare site, in the east end of Glasgow. The whole project has been designed by the Paul Stallan Studio @ RMJM. Primarily the site was used as accommodation for the athletes competing in the games as well as team officials from every competing nation for the duration of the games. As well as accommodation the athletes' village also provided an exclusive retail area for the athletes as well as a dining hall and medical facilities. This is to ensure the athletes and officials have a comfortable stay and have everything they need near by.

Throughout the Games period, transport played a crucial role for those enjoying the Games, those working at the Games, and those competing at the Games. Glasgow hosted 4,500 athletes who required transportation between the Athletes' Village, training venues, and competition venues. Athletes travelled in minibuses or coaches, which used, where necessary, dedicated lanes – known as the Games Route Network – to ensure they are given priority over other traffic in a similar way buses are in bus lanes. These lanes formed part of a larger dedicated Games Route Network that was also used by the people working on the Games.

Budget

The budget of the 2014 Commonwealth Games were around £500-600 million. The games were funded by the Scottish Government and the Glasgow City Council. The Scottish government and the Glasgow City Council contributed 70-30% respectively of the total funds. However, the games were under-budget. More than £50 million were saved. Former First minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond said that the left over money would be invested in the National Health Service of Scotland.

Opening ceremony

The programme, which included about 2,000 performers, featured Karen Dunbar, John Barrowman, Amy Macdonald, Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle, Nicola Benedetti, Julie Fowlis, Eric Whitacre, and Pumeza Matshikiza, as well as a message from the International Space Station. The ceremony began with a countdown and a recorded video message from Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, explaining the partnership between the Games and UNICEF. Following the arrival of the Queen there was a flypast by the Red Arrows display team. The venue featured the largest LED video screen in Europe, supplied by Sports Technology. Scotland's then First Minister Alex Salmond welcomed the participants and spectators, and introduced a moment of silence in memory of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster. The final part of the Queen's Baton Relay was run by 32 Scottish volunteers nominated for giving their time to developing the nation's youth through sport. The baton was then passed to Sir Chris Hoy, who delivered it to President of the Commonwealth Games Federation HRH Prince Imran and the Queen. The display of the message concealed within the baton was delayed by a difficulty in opening the device. The Games were launched in partnership with UNICEF, to save and change children’s lives. The unique partnership aimed "to use the power of sport to reach every child in Scotland and benefit children in every Commonwealth nation and territory." In the culmination of a groundbreaking partnership with UNICEF, the ceremony inspired millions to text donations to our shared ‘Put Children First’ campaign, which raised £3.5 million on the night and more than £5 million to date.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony took a visual theme of a music festival, with performers, tents, and flags within the stadium. The ceremony began with Scottish singer Lulu welcoming the athletes of the games. Scottish band Deacon Blue performed their signature song "Dignity". During this the workers of Glasgow were recognised as they paraded along the front of the main stand at Hampden, some on foot, others in their work vehicles. Local band Prides performed their hit song "Messiah". Speeches followed, with Prince Imran telling the crowd that the games were "pure dead brilliant", a local Glaswegian term. The games were officially closed and handed over to the Gold Coast for 2018, who began their own performance with Australian singer Jessica Mauboy. Kylie Minogue then performed a seven-song set list, while the volunteer cast told the story of "a typical Glasgow night out". Her costume was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and headpiece designed by millinery designer Lara Jensen. The show ended with Dougie MacLean performing Caledonia with the other performers, and a performance of "Auld Lang Syne".

Participating nations

There were 71 participating nations at the 2014 Commonwealth Games with approximately 4,950 competing athletes, making it one of the largest Commonwealth Games staged to date. On 7 October 2013, The Gambia, having withdrawn from the Commonwealth five days earlier, confirmed that it would not be taking part in the games.

In this table the number of athletes sent is shown in parenthesis.

Calendar

The following table shows a summary of the competition schedule.

Sports

A total of 18 sports and 261 medal events were contested at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. A record 22 para-sport events were contested in five different sports (athletics, cycling, lawn bowls, swimming and weightlifting) and para track cycling was held for the very first time. Archery and tennis from the 2010 games were replaced on the sports programme with triathlon (for the first time since 2006) and judo (first time since 2002). Among sport disciplines removed from 2010 include the walking events in athletics, synchronised swimming and Greco-Roman wrestling, while mountain biking was contested for the first time since 2006. Shooting medal events also dropped from 44 in 2010 to 19. Among new disciplines on the Commonwealth Games programme for the first time were the triathlon mixed relay event, more shooting medal chances for women and the addition of women's boxing to the programme.

Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of medal events contested in each sport.

Medal table

Only the top ten successful nations are displayed here.

The ranking in this table is consistent with International Olympic Committee convention in its published medal tables. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won (in this context, a "nation" is an entity represented by a Commonwealth Games Association). The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If nations are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by their three letter country code.

Two bronze medals were awarded in boxing, judo and wrestling, except for Women's freestyle 75 kg as only five competitors were entered in the event. Additionally, two bronze medals were awarded in the men's 100 m backstroke and women's pole vault as a result of a tie between two athletes. No bronze medal was awarded in the men's synchronized 10 metre platform as only four teams competed in the event. Therefore, the total number of bronze medals is greater than the total number of gold or silver medals.

  *   Host nation (Scotland)

Bid and interim logo

The interim logo for the Games was first used during Glasgow's bid, with the "Candidate City" section removed following 9 November 2007, when the bid was approved. The logo depicts two sprinters woven into a tartan motif, representing Scotland. The logo also vaguely resembles the Clyde Auditorium, one of Glasgow's most recognisable landmarks. The pattern, forming the Roman numerals XX, also represents the 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games. The text is more specifically Glaswegian, with its stylised Mackintosh font. A flag featuring the logo was used extensively during the bid process. The flag was flown above Merchant House in George Square daily.

The Games brand identity

The full Games brand identity was developed by Glasgow design studio Tangent Graphic, the lead creative agency between 2010 and 2014. Tangent's first major project was the official sport Pictograms, launched on 23 July 2011, and they continued to deliver and influence every aspect of the Glasgow 2014 identity. Tangent inherited the official logo which was designed by Marque Creative. The logo was unveiled on Commonwealth Day, 8 March 2010. It was inspired by three factors, time, data and measurement. Its rings are proportioned to represent the 20th Commonwealth Games, across 17 sports, over 11 days in 1 city. An animated version of the logo has also been produced.

There is also a version of the logo in Scottish Gaelic. Arthur Cormack, the Chair of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, made the following official statement:

The official website was built in phases, delivered by Dog Digital and Blonde.

Mascot

Clyde, an anthropomorphic thistle named after the river which flows through the centre of Glasgow, was the official mascot of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The mascot was designed by Beth Gilmour, who won a competition run by Glasgow 2014 for children to design the Mascot. Beth's drawing was then brought to life by digital agency Nerv, who turned it into a commercial character, created a full backstory, gave it a name – Clyde – and created a website for him. Clyde was finally revealed in a seven-minute animated film created by Nerv at a ceremony at BBC Scotland's headquarters in Glasgow. The organiser, Glasgow 2014, said the mascot's design was chosen because of its "Scottish symbolism and Glaswegian charm and likeability".

25 life-size Clyde statues were erected at places of public interest across the city including the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and at George Square. However following vandalism at a statue in the Govan area of the city, the statues were taken down. They are expected to be re-erected in secure areas. By the final day of the Games, over 50,000 Clyde mascot cuddly toys had been sold.

Due to popularity in the city, the Clyde mascots are currently proposed official mascots of the City of Glasgow.

Drug doping and testing

Nigeria's Chika Amalaha failed a doping test and was stripped of a gold medal in the women's 53 kg weightlifting. In the women's 400 metres final, Botswana's Amantle Montsho placed fourth; she was subsequently provisionally suspended pending the results of a B sample after failing a doping test. Montsho's B sample was reported as positive on 14 August 2014.