1938 British Empire Games in Sydney, Australia

The 1938 British Empire Games (as the Commonwealth Games were known as at the time) were held in Sydney, held between 5-12 February 1938.

Sports

Seven sports were featured in the Sydney Games – track and field, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving, and wrestling.

Trivia

• This was the first time the Games were held in the southern hemisphere.
• The famous Sydney Cricket Ground hosted the opening ceremony in front of 40,000 spectators.
• Fifteen nations participated, involving a total of 466 athletes and 43 officials. New participants included Fiji and Ceylon.
• In 1938 athletes from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland took four months to travel to the Empire Games in Sydney – three months of which were spent on a boat. Twice a week they would stop at a port to allow the athletes to train.
• Australia's Decima Norman’s winning performances in Athletics at the 1938 Games - 1st in all events in which she competed, winning 5 Gold medals (100 yards, 220 yards, Broad Jump, 440 yards Medley Relay; 660 yards Medley Relay.

women's sprint race at Sydney Empire Games in 1938

Medal Count

The following list includes the first four ranked teams. The ranking list for all years is available Top Countries on the Commonwealth Games Medal Tallyhere.