Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games

Since our Commonwealth Games debut at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Papua New Guinea has competed at every edition of the Games since, with the exception of the 1986 Games in Edinburgh, Scotland. Our most recent Games was Glasgow 2026 in Scotland.

With athletes from the 74 nations and territories of the Commonwealth gathering every four years to compete, the Commonwealth Games is the second biggest international sporting event Team PNG attends, after the Olympics. Most Olympic sports are played at the Commonwealth Games with the addition of sports that are played in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls and netball. The first Commonwealth Games, then known as the British Empire Games was held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada. The name changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, then to British Commonwealth Games in 1970, before taking on the current name of the Commonwealth Games in 1974. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Papua New Guinea sent what was then its biggest ever contingent, with a team of 122 travelling to Delhi, India.

Papua New Guinea can be proud of the performances of its teams attending the Commonwealth Games over the years. In our very first games we won a medal in boxing with Kenneth Hopkins punching his way to bronze in the 71 kg division. Boxing has contributed two more medals to PNG’s overall Commonwealth Games medal tally.  The other medals have come from lawn bowls, shooting, swimming and weightlifting. Our first gold came courtesy of Geua Tau when she defeated New Zealand’s Millie Cecilia Khan 25-18 in lawn bowls (women's singles) during the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Papua New Guinea's second gold medal came at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, when Ryan Pini won the men's 100m butterfly event in swimming, with a time of 52.64 seconds. The race united the nation as thousands of Papua New Guineans celebrated with Ryan and Dika Toua, who had won silver in weightlifting at the same games, when they returned home for a ticker-tape parade.

Weightlifting has since become our most successful Commonwealth Games sport. At Glasgow 2014, Dika Toua won gold in the women’s 53 kg and Steven Kari won gold in the men’s 94 kg. At Gold Coast 2018, Steven Kari defended his 94 kg title, and Dika Toua (women’s 53 kg) and Morea Baru (men’s 62 kg) won silver. Morea Baru won silver again in the men’s 61 kg at Birmingham 2022 and bronze in the men’s 65 kg at Glasgow 2026.