1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games

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]

Host cityVancouver, Canada

Nations24

Athletes662

Events91

Quick facts Host city, Nations ...

V British Empire and Commonwealth Games

Host city	Vancouver, Canada
Nations	24
Athletes	662
Events	91
Opening	30 July 1954
Closing	7 August 1954
Opened by	Earl Alexander of Tunis
Closed by	Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Athlete's Oath	Bill Parnell
Main venue	Empire Stadium
← IV VI →

Close

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.