Team Canada Wins 92 Medals at the Commonwealth Games

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, Aug. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  In hours, Team Canada for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, will walk in the closing ceremony at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, knowing that they did their country proud and surpassed expectations for these unique Commonwealth Games. Team Canada achieved its goal of a top three ranking in total medals, amongst all nations and territories competing.

From July 28^th to August 8^th Team Canada competed at the XXII Commonwealth Games, winning 92 total medals, 26 gold, 32 silver and 34 bronze medals. The team, comprised of 110 Olympians and Paralympians, won eight medals in para sports. 59 medals were won by women or mixed teams and 33 medals were won by men. Swimming as a sport contributed the most medals with 20, followed closely by wrestling with 12 medals won. Athletes from Ontario contributed to the most medals, followed closely by Quebec.

While celebrating the outstanding success, it is important to note the significant challenges the unified team overcame to realize accomplishments. Due to the global health pandemic and the significant challenges in planning a Games of this magnitude largely remotely, the decision was made by organizers, mid planning cycle, to move away from the single site athletes’ village in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham and instead implements a three ‘campus’ villages model at the University of Birmingham, the University of Warwick and the NEC Hotel Campus. A team spread across multiple cities and villages presented unprecedented challenges for the team as a whole.

“Recognizing the significant challenges of the Birmingham organizing committee, Team Canada was spread across three villages plus two satellite villages. This presented new challenge for mission delivery potentially impacting everything from logistics to team unity,” said Scott Stevenson, Executive Director, Team Canada 2022. “Despite these new variables, I am proud of how our entire team remained agile, planned for the obstacles and created an athlete-centered environment where our Canadian athletes could shine.”

At the helm of this accomplished world-class Team Canada were co-Chefs de Mission, 2010 and 2018 Commonwealth Games sprinter Sam Effah and Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, Olympic Bronze Medalist and 2018 Chef de Mission Claire Carver-Dias. Sad the 2022 Games are over, Effah and Carver-Dias noted the great accomplishments of the organizing committee and the honour that they experienced co-leading this specific Team Canada.

“Thank you to Birmingham. Despite the global pandemic and the challenges faced by this organizing committee, these “Games for Everyone”, promoted a level playing field for men and women with the fully integrated para-sports programme. Our athletes were spoiled by outstanding levels of service and world-class sporting venues,” said co-Chef de Mission Sam Effah. “The 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games represented our time to shine and together, as a country and as a team, we collectively celebrated where we come from and all those who helped us on our journey.”

“It’s been a privilege to watch our athletes and coaches perform on this world stage in person and on CBC in Canada. They threw everything into the ring/pool/field/track/courts and more. There were numerous moments of complete exultation and occasional tears of disappointment. The maple leaf rose above the crowd and we belted out “Oh Canada” with patriotic gusto,” said Claire Carver-Dias, the co-Chef de Mission positioned at the NEC campus. “Equally poignant were the many times when an athlete or coach finished their events and proudly uttered, “That was my personal best. I am thankful that I now get to return home with all of these precious memories.”

Birmingham 2022 featured 19 sports and eight para-sports as part of its program with up to 4,500 athletes taking part. The Commonwealth Games are unique in that they are the only multi-sport event that feature equal standing for sport and para-sport events, and these 2022 Games showcased the largest para-sport program ever and more medal events for women (135) than men (133).

Team Canada for the 2022 Games included 268 athletes competing in 18 sports and five para sports. The team was supported by 135 coaches, managers and support staff. One of the hallmarks of Canada’s Commonwealth Games team is sending “nextgen” athletes alongside Canada’s top summer sport athletes. For the 2022 Games, accomplished Olympians and previous Commonwealth Games champions and medallists stood along first-time multi-sport games participants, but the entire team delivered at the highest level.

Team Canada 2022 result highlights include:

• 20 medals won by Canadian swimmers, the same total as four years ago in Australia, which was Canada’s best since 1998. The seven gold won by swimmers is Canada’s best performance since the eight won in 1990.
• 15-year-old swimmer Summer McIntosh was the most-decorated Canadian at the 2022 Commonwealth Games winning six medals in total.
• Canada set records in the pool including a new Canadian, world junior and Commonwealth record in the 400-m individual medley (McIntosh), 200-m individual medley Games record (McIntosh), men’s 50-m freestyle S13 Canadian and Games record (Turbide), 2×50-m back Games record (Masse) and 200-m freestyle S14 Games record (Bennett).
• Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes and Sarah Pavan defended their 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medal to repeat as 2022 champions in beach volleyball.
• Sarah Mickey set a Commonwealth Games record in F55 shot put in athletics.
• Camryn Rogers set a Commonwealth Games record in hammer throw.
• Evan Dunfee set a Canadian and Commonwealth Games record in the race walk.
• Showing their dominance, all 12 members of the Canadian wrestling team for these Games won a medal.
• In weightlifting, Maude Charron (Sainte-Luce, Quebec) repeated as the Commonwealth Games Champion (64KG) and the Canadian women placed first overall in the standings against all other nations and territories.
• Hollie Naughton (Oakville, ON) became the first Canadian woman to ever win a medal in squash.
• For the inaugural 3×3 basketball and its wheelchair counterpart competition at the Commonwealth Games, Canadian women won gold and men the bronze in 3×3 basketball and women the gold and men the silver in wheelchair basketball.

The following table represents Canada’s multi-medallists for the 2022 Commonwealth Games:

Name	Sport	Medals	G	S	B
Summer McIntosh	Swimming	6	2	3	1
Kylie Masse	Swimming	5	1	4
Maggie MacNeil	Swimming	5	1	2	2
Carmel Kallemaa	Rhythmic Gymnastics	4	1	1	2
Joshua Liendo	Swimming	4	1	3
Kelsey Mitchel	Track Cycling	4		3	1
Javier Acevedo	Swimming	4		1	3
Ruslan Gaziev	Swimming	3		1	2
Rebecca Smith	Swimming	3		1	2
Emma Spence	Artistic Gymnastics	3			3
Mia Doucet Vallee	Diving	3	1		2
Suzanna Shahbazian	Rhythmic Gymnastics	2	1	1
Rylan Wiens	Diving	2		2
Felix Dolci	Gymnastics	2		2
Sophie Angus	Swimming	2		2
Chris Kaji	Artistic Gymnastics	2		1	1
Jayson Rampersad	Artistic Gymnastics	2		1	1
Laurie Denommee	Artistic Gymnastics	2		1	1
Mary-Sophie Harvey	Swimming	2		1	1
Ella Jansen	Swimming	2		1	1
Katerine Savard	Swimming	2		1	1
Stephen Calkins	Swimming	2			2

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has confirmed that the 2026 Commonwealth Games will be hosted by the State of Victoria in Australia. In what will be a first ever predominantly regional Commonwealth Games, Victoria 2026 will be staged in March 2026 across multiple cities and regional hubs including Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Gippsland.

Canada is the birthplace of the Commonwealth Games, having hosted the first ever Games in Hamilton in 1930, which were then known as the British Empire Games. Canada hosted the Commonwealth Games 4x to date – Hamilton (1930), Vancouver (1954), Edmonton (1978) and Victoria (1994).

Canada is pursuing the return of the Commonwealth Games to Hamilton, ON and area for the 2030 edition of the Games. A community-led regional hosting proposal encompassing eight Greater Toronto Area West cities and a wide range of public, educational, indigenous and not for profit stakeholders has been developed. The Hamilton 2030 bid is focused on realizing the Games’ mission of building peaceful, sustainable and prosperous legacies through transformational partnerships.