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2006 Commonwealth Games facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The 2006 Commonwealth Games were a huge sports event held in Melbourne, Australia. They took place from March 15 to March 26, 2006. It was the biggest sports event Melbourne had hosted since the 1956 Summer Olympics.

The main stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies was the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This stadium was also used for the 1956 Olympic Games. The official mascot for the Games was Karak, a type of bird called a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo.

Sports at the 2006 Games

The 2006 Commonwealth Games featured 16 different sports. There were 12 sports where athletes competed individually, and 4 team sports. In total, athletes competed in 247 events!

Some sports were divided into different types of events, called disciplines. Here are some examples:

  • Aquatics: This included diving, swimming, and synchronised swimming.
  • Cycling: Athletes competed in track cycling, road cycling, and mountain biking.
  • Gymnastics: There were artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics.
  • Shooting: This involved different types of shooting, like clay target, pistol, small bore and air rifle, and full bore rifle.

Medal Winners

The table below shows which countries won the most medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Countries are ranked by the number of gold medals they won.

2006 Commonwealth Games medal count
Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Australia 84 69 68 221
2  England 36 40 34 110
3  Canada 26 29 31 86
4  India India 22 17 11 50
5  South Africa 12 13 13 38
6  Scotland 11 7 11 29
7  Jamaica 10 4 8 22
8  Malaysia 7 12 10 29
9  New Zealand 6 12 13 31
10  Kenya 6 5 7 18
11  Singapore 5 6 7 18
12  Nigeria 4 6 7 17
13  Wales 3 5 11 19
14  Cyprus 3 1 2 6
15  Ghana 2 0 1 3
 Uganda 2 0 1 3
17  Pakistan 1 3 1 5
18  Papua New Guinea 1 1 0 2
19  Isle of Man 1 0 1 2
 Namibia 1 0 1 2
 Tanzania 1 0 1 2
22  Sri Lanka 1 0 0 1
23  Mauritius 0 3 0 3
24  Bahamas 0 2 0 2
 Northern Ireland 0 2 0 2
26  Cameroon 0 1 2 3
27  Botswana 0 1 1 2
 Malta 0 1 1 2
 Nauru 0 1 1 2
30  Bangladesh 0 1 0 1
 Grenada 0 1 0 1
 Lesotho 0 1 0 1
33  Trinidad and Tobago 0 0 3 3
34  Seychelles 0 0 2 2
35  Barbados 0 0 1 1
 Fiji 0 0 1 1
 Mozambique 0 0 1 1
 Samoa 0 0 1 1
 Swaziland 0 0 1 1
245 244 254 743

Games Schedule

This calendar shows when different events took place during the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

   ●    Opening ceremony    ●    Event competitions    ●    Event finals    ●    Closing ceremony
March 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th
Ceremonies ● ●
Athletics ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Badminton ● ● ● ● ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●●●● ●●●●●
Basketball ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●
Boxing ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ●● ● ●● ●● ●●
Cycling ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Diving ● ● ● ●
Gymnastics ● ● ●● ●●●●● ●●●●● ●● ● ●●●●
Hockey ● ● ● ● ●
Lawn Bowls ● ● ● ● ●● ●● ● ●
Netball ● ●
Rugby Sevens ● ●
Shooting ● ●
Squash ● ● ● ● ●
Swimming ● ● ● ● ● ●
Synchronised Swimming ● ● ● ●
Table tennis ● ● ● ●
Triathlon ● ● ● ●
Weightlifting ● ● ● ●
March 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th

Places Where Events Were Held

Many different places, called venues, were used for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Here are some of them and the sports they hosted.

Venues in Melbourne

  • Docklands Precinct: Used for walking events.
  • Melbourne Cricket Ground: Hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Athletics.
  • Melbourne Exhibition Centre: Used for Badminton, Boxing, and Weightlifting.
  • Melbourne Gun Club: Hosted Clay Target Shooting.
  • Melbourne International Shooting Club: Used for Small Bore and Pistol Shooting.
  • Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre: Hosted Aquatics (swimming, diving, synchronised swimming), Squash, and Table tennis.
  • Multi Purpose Venue (Melbourne Park): Hosted Basketball Finals, Track Cycling, and Netball Finals.
  • Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne Park): Used for Gymnastics.
  • Royal Botanic Gardens Circuit: Hosted Cycling Road Race events.
  • State Lawn Bowls Centre: Used for Lawn Bowls.
  • State Netball Hockey Centre: Hosted Netball and Hockey.
  • St Kilda Foreshore and Beach Road: Used for Triathlon and Cycling Time Trial.
  • Telstra Dome: Hosted Rugby 7s.

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Juegos de la Mancomunidad de 2006 para niños

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