Australia at the 2002 Commonwealth Games was represented by a team selected by the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) and abbreviated AUS.
Australia officially became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1931 under the Statute of Westminster having become independent of the UK in 1901.
Australia is one of only six countries to have competed in all of the Commonwealth Games held since 1930, although they did attend the 1911 Inter-Empire Championships as part of an Australasian team. This impressive international record extends to its participation in every Olympic Games in the modern era.
At the first Games in 1930 Australia won only 8 medals against England's 61. However by the first Games of the 21st century held in the city of Manchester, Australia's medal tally had moved to 207, ahead of any other country including England's 165.
Famous quotes containing the words australia, commonwealth and/or games:
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—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)
“Was I not born in this Realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country?... Is not my Kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to other’s harm? What turmoil have I made to this Commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard of the same?”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“At the age of twelve I was finding the world too small: it appeared to me like a dull, trim back garden, in which only trivial games could be played.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)