.jpg)
The Prince of Wales has officially opened the 21st Commonwealth Games on behalf of the Head of The Commonwealth, Her Majesty The Queen who is also his mother.
The Ceremony celebrates key Australian and Commonwealth sport value of promoting reconciliation for indigenous peoples
The Commonwealth Games Federation President, Louise Martin declared the Commonwealth as “more relevant than ever before” as she spoke to a global TV audience of 1.5 billion people at the opening of the XXI Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia.
The Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games took place in a packed Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast, the host city for the XXI Commonwealth Games. Cheered on by a stadium audience of over 35,000, the ceremony welcomed and introduced the 4,600 Commonwealth athletes ready to stake their claim on the global sporting stage.
As part of a segment looking back on the epic journey of the Queen’s Baton Relay, the Queen’s Baton entered the stadium for its final moments – brought in to the stadium in a combi van by multiple Commonwealth gold medallist swimmer Susie O’Neill before Athlete Sally Pearson presented the baton to the Prince of Wales, who read aloud the message from Her Majesty The Queen contained within the baton to officially declare the Games open.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games will be the first major sporting event in Australia with a far-reaching Reconciliation Action Plan, co-created and supported by an Indigenous Working Group and the local Yugambeh Elders Advisory Group. Yugambeh Elders Ted Williams and Patricia O’Connor – who travelled to London in 2017 to launch the Queen’s Baton Relay alongside Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace – accompanied the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in to the stadium.
The sporting competition for Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games have commenced with 19 gold medals across 13 sports to be contested in 14 venues. Over one million tickets have been sold for the sporting spectacle – the largest sporting event to be held in Australia since the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
