Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games: the highlights – GOV.UK

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Published 2 September 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/birmingham-2022-commonwealth-games-the-highlights/birmingham-2022-commonwealth-games-the-highlights
In July and August 2022, Birmingham hosted the 22nd Commonwealth Games, the largest multi-sport event to be held in England in 10 years, featuring thousands of world-class athletes and over 1.5 million spectators. Home to more than 180 nationalities, Birmingham 2022 has been a home Games for every nation.   From the moment the iconic ‘Raging Bull’ stormed into the Alexander Stadium on opening night, to the final notes from the legendary Ozzy Osborne as the curtain fell, these incredible Games have captured the imagination of the city, region and audiences across the globe.
Birmingham 2022 proved to be a spectacular sporting showcase. 877 medals were awarded, 96 Commonwealth Games records and 4 world records were broken and there were fantastic successes for all the Home Nations. There was more para sport than ever before at a Commonwealth Games, more medals events for women than men for the first time ever at a major multi-sport event and basketball 3×3, wheelchair basketball 3×3 and women’s T20 cricket appeared at the Commonwealth Games for the very first time.
Hosts Team England sent the most diverse and inclusive English sporting team to compete at Birmingham 2022 and were rewarded with a record 176 medals, including 57 golds, representing the most medals ever won by England at a Commonwealth Games.
Athletes from each of the UK’s Home Nations and the Crown Dependencies were central in delivering a successful and inclusive Games that made our whole nation proud and helped to unite us in celebration. Northern Ireland enjoyed its most successful Commonwealth Games ever; Scotland won more medals than at any Games other than Glasgow 2014; and para athletes led the way for Wales by contributing to half the team’s gold medals. Guernsey won its first medals at the Commonwealth Games for 28 years and its first-ever medal in athletics, while athletes from Jersey and the Isle of Man made their islands proud with their performances.
Birmingham 2022 has delivered some important Commonwealth Games firsts:
The sporting programme was just the beginning. The legacy these Games will leave for the city and the region will last for years to come.
Birmingham 2022 was never just about two weeks of sport: it was designed as the Games for Everyone, with every community able to access the events, opportunities and benefits the Games provided. 
The people of Birmingham and the West Midlands gave an exceptional welcome to the Games, including the fans who gathered to see the ‘Raging Bull’ in Centenary Square; the thousands who lined the streets for the marathon and road cycling; and the brilliant scenes of celebration seen at the Festival Sites across the region.
With half of the people in the UK saying they watched, followed online, or took part in a Birmingham 2022 event, the Games brought the national spotlight to the region:
The significant core public investment in the Games of £778 million has accelerated investment and regeneration in Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond. These infrastructure improvements include:
This public investment has also helped to unlock over £85 million additional funding from a range of public and third sector bodies, including a £35 million investment from Sport England to deliver a physical activity legacy.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Equality, diversity and inclusion was the golden thread that weaved throughout the delivery of the Games with a clear vision of an inclusive Games, accessible to anyone who wished to enjoy it, whether by taking part or watching.
This included:
The Birmingham Games have been part of a landmark year of celebration for the UK and the Commonwealth. In June, The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations saw people and communities from across the UK, Commonwealth and beyond, come together to celebrate this historic milestone, marking Her Majesty The Queen’s 70 years of service. Coventry’s year in the spotlight as UK City of Culture 2021 saw events continue to May 2022.
Further cultural events are continuing throughout the year through UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, the centenary of the BBC, and the 75th anniversary of the Edinburgh Festivals. 2022 is a unique opportunity to shine a light on all that is great about our nation, demonstrating the UK’s fantastic diverse culture, creativity, and shared heritage.
This document outlines some of the immediate benefits and special moments of the Games. More information on the full legacy programme can be found in the Birmingham 2022: Our Legacy plan.
More than 1.5 million tickets were sold for the Games, marking the most tickets ever sold for a Commonwealth Games in the UK and exceeding the 1.21 million tickets sold for the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
Alexander Stadium had 323,000 ticketed spectators and Edgbaston had 173,000 (a record for any women-only cricket tournament).
With the ‘Games for Everyone’ vision in mind, Games organisers prioritised making tickets as accessible as possible, with over 1 million tickets available at £22 or less, and a median ticket price of no more than £25. Concession tickets were available for all sports and both ceremonies from £8, and made up a minimum of 10% of tickets available.
700,000 tickets sold to West Midlands postcodes, with the first opportunity to buy tickets reserved for West Midlands residents
5,000 tickets provided to children and young people in care in Birmingham
206,000 tickets bought for under-16s
2,000 tickets provided to Generation 22 (Gen22) legacy programme participants aged 16-24
5,000 tickets given to children in the West Midlands, distributed through the regional Active Partnerships
Every ticket included local public transport for ticket holders on the day of the event to encourage behaviour change to more sustainable, active travel  and provide a safe, convenient and sustainable way for people to travel to Games venues. Those purchasing tickets were also able to make a donation to the 2 official charities of the Games: The Commonwealth Sport Foundation and United By 2022 Legacy Charity.
The ticketing programme was complemented by 5 events with free viewing access: cycling road race; cycling time trial; marathon; mountain biking and triathlon.
The sporting competition covered 19 sports across 280 medal events, including 44 medal events across 8 para sports: the biggest para sport programme in the history of the Commonwealth Games. For the first time at any major multi-sporting event, there were more women’s medal events (136 events) than men’s (134 events).
4,822 athletes (2,550 male and 2,272 female) competed in the Games. This included 311 para athletes competing in athletics, cycling, lawn bowls, powerlifting, table tennis, basketball, triathlon and swimming.
The programme included:
Over the course of the Games, competitors set:
4 world records
96 Commonwealth Games records
Australia topped the medal table with 67 golds, 57 silvers and 54 bronzes.
Medal standings
You can find the full medal table and standings on the Birmingham 2022 website.
For the host nation it was a great Games. Team England sent over 400 athletes and ended the Games with a record 176 medals, including 57 golds. The total represents England’s best ever Games, surpassing the 174 medals won at Glasgow 2014. Emily Campbell and Jack Laugher were the Opening Ceremony flag bearers and went on to win gold, with gymnast Jake Jarman having the honour at the Closing Ceremony following his haul of 4 golds. Athletes aged 17 to 74 won medals for England, encapsulating how sport can inspire every age group.
The David Dixon Award
The David Dixon Award for the outstanding athlete of the Games was given to Feng Tianwei, in recognition of her outstanding performance and demonstration of fair play and teamwork. The table tennis player from Singapore won three gold medals in Birmingham, bringing her total tally to 13 medals over the past 4 Games.
Meeting Perry
The official mascot for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games was Perry. Perry is a friendly, kind and cheeky bull, an animal with which Birmingham has been synonymous for centuries. He was named after the Perry Barr area of Birmingham, the home of the Alexander Stadium.
Perry was inspired by the design of ten-year-old Emma Lou from Bolton, winner of a national design competition that took place during summer of 2020, with rainbow coloured hexagons representing the coming together of the Commonwealth in equal partnership with the diverse communities of Birmingham and the West Midlands at the Games in 2022.
Building on the power and momentum of the Games, the Games partners have striven to inspire and enable people to improve and sustain their levels of physical activity and increase their mental health awareness, with a particular focus on the most inactive and underrepresented groups.
The Games will leave a lasting physical legacy for the people of Birmingham and the West Midlands. The Games has brought a brand-new aquatics centre to Sandwell, leaving a state-of-the-art community leisure facility for use by local people from spring 2023. The Alexander Stadium has been transformed into a world-class athletics venue, designed with a permanent capacity of 18,000 post-Games.
In addition, investment into Cannock Chase has created a brand new, world-class mountain biking trail (‘Perry’s Trail’) that will be available for the public to use long after the Games has finished, alongside an innovative bike play facility focused on young families and children.
These venues have been built and improved with accessibility in mind so they can be enjoyed by all, and they will provide community and elite sports facilities post-Games. The improvements will help support the West Midlands and UK to secure more major events in the years to come.
Nearly half (43%) of spectators surveyed by the Organising Committee have suggested they will increase their activity levels as a result of the Games. This rises to 71% for those under 25.
£35 million has been invested by Sport England, £2 million by the Department for Transport through Transport for West Midlands and £1 million by Birmingham City Council to support people to be active and engage with the Games.
Investment has focused on removing barriers and supporting people who don’t think physical activity is for them.
One of Birmingham’s fantastic assets is its diversity. The city is home to over 180 different nationalities, with many residents of the West Midlands born in a non-UK Commonwealth country. It is the youngest city in Europe, mirroring the youth of the Commonwealth overall. Birmingham 2022 championed this diversity and used the Games to bring people together for an international celebration of sport, culture and business.
Birmingham City Council invested £6 million in the Commonwealth Games Community Fund, including £2 million in the ‘Celebrating Communities’ scheme to ensure all 69 council wards could embrace and mark the Games, increase local level engagement and celebrate Birmingham’s local diverse history and linkages to the Commonwealth. Events included street parties, picnics and community celebrations.
As part of this, and to ensure that these projects could be accessible to all, Birmingham City Council worked with over 425 organisations to plan and deliver these projects to ensure they were representative of the communities they are aimed at. Through this programme, 493 projects have been commissioned across the city.
The Organising Committee has delivered ‘Bring the Power’, a youth engagement and learning programme which has helped inspire a generation of young people. Birmingham City Council invested £500,000 into the programme for delivery within the city.
Beyond Birmingham, ‘Bring the Power’ has also launched a national campaign, providing schools across England with an opportunity to be inspired and feel connected to the Games through a wide range of resources including lesson plans, Games-themed assemblies, workshops and more.
Highlights of the ‘Bring the Power’ School Festival programme:
563 schools across England participated, engaging
over 171,000 students
Internationally, Commonwealth Connections (a jointly-funded project between the Organising Committee and the British Council) has allowed young people across the Commonwealth to learn from each other using sports, arts and culture. As part of this programme, 60 schools in the West Midlands have been twinned with schools across the Commonwealth, using art and sports to build relationships and learn together about shared Commonwealth values.
The Opening and Closing Ceremonies bookended the Games in spectacular fashion. Local music heroes Duran Duran and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi wowed a packed Alexander Stadium on Opening Ceremony night, which celebrated Birmingham’s industrial heritage and multicultural traditions.
The ceremony also included a Red Arrows fly-past and an appearance from the 10-metre high mechanised bull, in a section of the ceremony which focused on the plight of female chain-makers in the early 20th century. The bull will be staying in Centenary Square until September 2022 to coincide with the end of the cultural festival, and Games partners are looking to find it a longer-term home.
The Games were formally closed on 8 August 2022 during a show-stopping Closing Ceremony at the Alexander Stadium, with an all-star cast of the region’s music artists including Beverley Knight, Goldie, UB40 and Panjabi MC. The medley of unforgettable performances reflected the West Midlands’ unique musical heritage and told the story of Birmingham’s embrace of generations of Commonwealth citizens. The evening was topped off by a surprise performance by Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, reunited with guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Tommy Clufetos and bassist Adam Wakeman.
Both ceremonies provided a unique opportunity to showcase the best of the UK on a global stage, and celebrated the vibrant cultural diversity of Birmingham and the West Midlands with our friends across the Commonwealth.
A Pride House is a venue welcoming LGBTIQ+ fans, athletes, and allies during large-scale international sporting events. Pride Houses are places to view the competitions, experience the event with others, learn about LGBTIQ+ sport and LGBTIQ+ discrimination in sport, and build a relationship with mainstream sport.
Birmingham’s Pride House was a Games-time hub for the Commonwealth Sport Pride Network, which positively championed and enabled LGBTIQ+ inclusion at the Commonwealth Games and across the Commonwealth Sport Movement.
The Commonwealth Games is known as the ‘friendly Games’, bringing people together from across the Commonwealth regardless of their cultural background, disability, gender or socio-economic background.
There was an extensive community programme which aimed to connect communities to the Games through meaningful engagement and participation, including:
Alongside the Games, a vibrant 6-month cultural festival has highlighted the city and region’s rich cultural heritage and diversity.
An additional £12 million of funding was awarded from a number of organisations, including the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and Spirit of 2012, alongside Birmingham City Council.
The Birmingham 2022 Festival has equality, inclusion and accessibility at its core; celebrating common ground, expressing and reflecting the unique people and places of the West Midlands.
The Critical Mass participation project enabled 245 disabled and non-disabled young people from across the West Midlands to co-create a series of major dance performances, and take centre stage at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
107 Creative City projects took place across Birmingham, flooding open spaces in the city with art, co-created with local communities. This was the first time that community-based arts and cultural projects have been delivered as part of a Games cultural festival.
The Festival launched on 28 February 2022, and included a live performance from internationally renowned Birmingham band UB40. The opening event, Wondrous Stories, attracted a live audience of over 21,500 people over 4 days, including 7 free performances. The Festival will continue to run until the end of September 2022.
The 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay was the prelude to the Birmingham 2022 Games. Over a period of 294 days, the Baton covered nearly 90,000 miles and visited the 72 Commonwealth nations and territories taking part in the Games, representing a third of the world’s population.
Over the 269 days of its international leg, the Baton travelled through Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, South America, the Caribbean, and North America, returning to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend. It then travelled to the Falkland Islands, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the 4 UK Home Nations.
All of the Queen’s Baton Relay activity was centred around the following themes:
Due to international COVID-19 restrictions, this was the first Queen’s Baton Relay where the Baton travelled without a team accompanying it. Instead, all nations worked together, passing the Baton from neighbour to neighbour. The Baton spent 2-3 days in most countries, with extended stays in countries showcasing the Business and Tourism Programme (BATP).
The Baton has travelled by numerous means of transport including: foot, bicycle, motorbike, car, electric bus, sailboat, tugboat, canoe, sailing dinghy, rowing scull, seaplane, zipline, horse, and life-sized puppet elephant.
In February 2022, the Baton was carried by His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge during Dubai Expo; marking the first time the Queen’s Baton Relay has ever travelled outside the Commonwealth, promoting Commonwealth values in new parts of the world.
The Baton visited the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies and toured the Home Nations. Highlights included:
The Baton spent 14 days travelling through England from 4 July. It then spent the final 11 days of its journey around the West Midlands.
The Queen’s message for the 2022 Commonwealth Games
The Baton concluded its epic journey at the Games Opening Ceremony, where His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales delivered the Queen’s message:
[the Games] remind us of our connection with one another, wherever we may be in the world, as part of the Commonwealth family of nations…
Tonight, in the words of the founder of the Games, we embark once again on a novel adventure here in Birmingham, a pioneering city which has drawn in and embraced so many throughout its history. It is a city symbolic of the rich diversity and unity of the Commonwealth, and one which now welcomes you all in friendship.
The £778 million investment into Birmingham and the West Midlands to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games was designed to catalyse long-term positive changes for the city and region. In particular, the Games will drive changes across a broad spectrum of economic and social benefits to Birmingham, the West Midlands and the wider UK.
The Games’ ambition was to deliver the most sustainable Commonwealth Games yet. Birmingham 2022 committed to measure its carbon footprint and take a reduction-first approach, focussing on key emission hotspots, for example encouraging spectators to use public transport by including it within every ticket. Where emissions couldn’t be eliminated, steps were taken that aimed to, over time, offset the entire carbon footprint of the Games.
This is a first for any Commonwealth Games and is being supported through the planting of a 2,022 acre Legacy Forest in the Midlands region, in partnership with the Games’ Nature and Carbon Neutral supporter, Severn Trent Water.
Sustainability initiatives included:
Alongside the West Midlands Combined Authority and the Organising Committee, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has provided funding to offer Carbon Literacy Training for Games volunteers and West Midlands residents. This is a course designed to continue the carbon-neutral legacy of the Games, helping people understand the climate emergency and actions they can take to reduce their own carbon footprint.
With spectators travelling from around the globe, and millions of people arriving in the region, the Commonwealth Games have been one of the biggest-ever demands on the West Midlands’ transport network.
Hosting the Commonwealth Games has accelerated the development of public transport infrastructure improvements that will benefit the city and wider region. This included the development of new Sprint rapid bus routes and improvements to Perry Barr, University, Coventry and Leamington Spa railway stations. The Games has also been the catalyst for initiating highway redevelopments to benefit the city, including the A34 at Perry Barr.
During the Games, the carbon impact of the different transport mode choices was included in the Commonwealth Games journey planner, aiming to inform and encourage users to choose lower carbon options. Transport for West Midlands plans to adopt this concept to support journey planning in the longer term as post-Games legacy.
Keeping the second-largest city in the UK moving was a key success of the Games.
Hosting the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will provide a huge boost to the economies of Birmingham, the West Midlands and the wider UK, and is laying the foundations for wider economic recovery from the pandemic.
More than 5 million people came to the city centre during the two-week period beginning 25 July 2022 – a 200% increase on the same period in 2021 – bringing huge benefits to the local economy.
40,000 jobs and skills opportunities were created by the Games, benefitting West Midlands residents.
The Jobs and Skills Academy invested £5 million to train unemployed residents to take advantage of roles in the Games. Through the Jobs and Skills Academy, over 7,500 people were trained in the key Games-related occupations of security, stewarding, hospitality, logistics and cleaning. This was essential for the Games and is also helping to build the workforce talent pool for the region.
In addition, the West Midlands Combined Authority was successful in securing a £5.2 million project ‘Find Your Future’ commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, designed to support over 3,500 local people into employment and training both pre and post-Games. The project is part-funded by the European Social Fund.
A further £812,000 was awarded to the West Midlands Combined Authority through the National Lottery Community Fund, to help 1,000 young people connect to Commonwealth Games opportunities until December 2022. The Jobs and Skills Academy also invested £1 million to train employees in higher-level skills.
14,000 volunteers were trained to support the delivery of the Games, with 500 of these posts ringfenced for young people aged 14-17. The Games offered around 250,000 hours of training and 1 million volunteering hours. These volunteers were proud champions of Birmingham, the West Midlands and the UK; 63% came from the West Midlands, 61% were female and 21% self-reported as being from ethnically diverse backgrounds.
Over 750 young people have also been recruited, as part of the Gen22 youth social action programme, to volunteer within their local community. This programme provides an opportunity for young people (aged 16-24) to gain skills and work experience, and who might otherwise struggle to access Games-related opportunities.
The legacy of these volunteers will carry on, as Games organisers continue momentum from the Games through a matching platform to link volunteers to volunteering opportunities across the region, initially funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and supported by Spirit of 2012.
With a global audience, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has given the city, the West Midlands region and the UK an unrivalled platform to showcase their best assets, raising the profile of the region and our country and shining a light on all the opportunities they have to offer across the Commonwealth.
Launched in July 2021, the Business and Tourism Programme (BATP) leveraged the profile generated by the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to boost the global reputations of Birmingham, the West Midlands and the UK as leading destinations for tourism, trade and investment.
The programme was developed by a partnership of regional, national and international organisations, all aiming to maximise the long-term economic benefits of the Commonwealth Games.
The programme is being delivered in partnership by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the West Midlands Combined Authority, the West Midlands Growth Company, the Department for International Trade, and Visit Britain.
The BATP is creating opportunities to connect with Commonwealth nations, territories and key global markets, re-establish a more resilient and sustainable tourism sector in the West Midlands, and contribute to the recovery of UK tourism more widely following COVID-19.
The Business and Tourism Programme to date:
Part of the business promotion activity included the delivery of UK House during Games-time, including the Commonwealth Business Forum, which was opened by the Prime Minister and Chancellor. UK House showcased and celebrated the UK as a leading, innovative nation with a dynamic, investor-friendly business landscape.
The UK House programme featured 8 days of events with more than 90 sessions, panels, clinics and workshops focussed on education, data-driven healthcare, sports economy, creative and digital technologies, food and drink, future mobility, tourism and legacy. The 5 key markets were India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Canada.
BBC Sport’s coverage of Birmingham 2022 was streamed a record-breaking 57.1 million times. This was over 6 times the number of streams seen in previous years, with a total of 9 million for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and 8.2m for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
From the outset, legacy was central to Birmingham 2022 and is reflected in the 5 mission pillars of the Games and its vision to be the ‘Games for Everyone’.
75 projects from across Birmingham, the West Midlands and the nation have joined the Games’ ‘United By Birmingham 2022’ community programme, demonstrating that their projects align with and champion the values of the Games’ mission pillars.
With the Closing Ceremony now behind us, Games partners remain committed to ensuring the benefits of the Games are felt throughout Birmingham, the West Midlands, and the UK, for years to come. The United By 2022 Legacy Charity’s aim is to maintain the momentum started by the Games and, with partners, support the Birmingham 2022 legacy going forward.
The Commonwealth Sport Foundation and United By 2022 Legacy Charity were the official charities of the Games, and worked with Sport Relief as Official Charity Partner to raise money to maximise the legacy impacts of the Games.
More information can be found in the Games’ publication Birmingham 2022: Our Legacy.
An independent evaluation is being undertaken into the economic, social and environmental impact of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
An evaluation report focussing on Games delivery will be published later in 2022, and another report capturing the post-Games legacy impacts will be published in late 2023.
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