Scotland at the Commonwealth Games


Scotland is one of only six countries to have competed in every Commonwealth Games since the first Empire Games in 1930. The others are Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and Wales.
The Commonwealth Games is the only major multi-sport event in which Scottish athletes and teams compete as Scotland; otherwise Scotland participates in multi-sport events as part of a Great Britain team.
Scotland has hosted the Commonwealth Games three times, Edinburgh in 1970 and 1986, and Glasgow in 2014. The inaugural Commonwealth Youth Games were held in Edinburgh in 2000.
Scotland sent a team of 207 athletes and 85 officials to the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, and won 30 medals.
After the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Scotland was seventh in the all-time tally of medals, with an overall total of 451 medals.
Scotland's most successful Commonwealth medallist by total medals is shooter Alister Allan, with 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze medals from 1974 to 1994. In 2018, Lawn Bowler Alex Marshall became the most successful athlete by Golds, winning his fifth Gold Medal which gave him 6 overall, having also won a Silver at the Gold Coast Games. Other successful medallists include athlete Allan Wells and Peter Heatly. Lawn bowler Willie Wood is the first competitor to have competed in seven Commonwealth Games, from 1974 to 2002, missing 1986 because of a dispute over amateurism.

Medal tally

Commonwealth Games council and member governing bodies

The Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland is the national sporting organisation responsible for entering a Scottish team in the Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games. It is also responsible for organising bids for hosting the Commonwealth Games. The CGCS headquarters is at the Gannochy Sports Centre, on the campus of the University of Stirling.
Membership of the CGCS consists of representatives of the governing bodies of the 26 sports in the Commonwealth Games programme from which the host city selects up to 17 sports for each Commonwealth Games:
Scotland uses the St Andrew's Cross as its flag at the Commonwealth Games. This flag is common for all sporting teams that represent Scotland as an entity distinct from the United Kingdom.
From 2010 onwards, Scotland will use "Flower of Scotland" as the victory anthem. This replaces "Scotland the Brave" which was used at previous between 1958 and 2006. Prior to 1958, "Scots Wha Hae" was used. The new anthem was chosen in January 2010 by athletes that had been selected to participate in the 2010 games. The shortlist of anthems also included "Scotland the Brave", "Loch Lomond" and "Highland Cathedral".