Melbourne 2006 - The Facts

The next Games will be held in Melbourne, Australia from 15th March 2006 until 26th March 2006 in the Victorian state capital of Melbourne. This is the 4th Games held in Australia after Sydney in 1938, Perth in 1962 and Brisbane in 1982. Melbourne has not yet hosted a Commonwealth Games but was the location for the 1956 Olympics, the first in the southern hemisphere and the central stadium for those Games, the 100,000 Melbourne Cricket Ground affectionately known as the MCG, will again be the main Games stadium and is being developed to provide a fitting centrepiece to a range of venues most of which line the Yarra River with the central city precinct.

Melbourne is a multicultural city of 3,500,000 famous for its sport, restaurants, parks and Arts festival and is located on Port Phillip Bay

Sports in the Melbourne Games programme are -
• Aquatics - Swimming and Diving (men’s and women’s)
• Athletics (men’s and women’s)
• Badminton (men’s and women’s team, singles and doubles)
• Basketball (men’s and women’s)
• Bowls (men’s and women’s)
• Boxing (men’s)
• Cycling (men’s and women’s Track, Road and Mountain)
• Gymnastics (men’s and women’s Artistic and women’s Rhythmic)
• Hockey (men’s and women’s)
• Netball (women’s)
• Rugby Sevens (men’s)
• Shooting (men’s and women’s Fullbore, Smallbore, Pistol, Skeet and Trap)
• Squash (men’s and women’s singles and doubles)
• Table Tennis (men’s and women’s team, singles and doubles)
• Triathlon (men’s and women’s)
• Weightlifting (men’s and women’s)

Dropping from the Manchester 2002 programme are Judo and Wrestling with Basketball (men and women) making its debut at the Games.

With the loss of Judo in particular and the Games being held out of season for Scottish athletes it will be more difficult than ever for our athletes to succeed but planning has commenced to prepare for the challenge and we know that with strong Scottish public response our efforts in Manchester and a large Scottish community in Melbourne we will be assured of both a warm welcome and strong support.

For further information check the Melbourne 2006 website.

On 23rd October 2002 M2006 announced their plans for the Games Village.

Why not have a look at the Unofficial Melbourne 2006 website.