Commonwealth Games: 100 Years of Medals, Growth, and Gender Parity

By shrijeetverma13 · August 6, 2026

From 195 medals in 1930 to 877 in 2022, the Commonwealth Games have grown dramatically while achieving near gender parity. Australia leads overall with…

Australia has won the most total medals across all Commonwealth Games with 2,693 medals, followed closely by England with 2,469 medals. Canada ranks third with 1,674 medals, while New Zealand and India round out the top five with 744 and 585 medals respectively.

The total number of medals awarded per Games has generally increased over time, from 1930 through 2026. The lowest count was 195 medals in 1930, while the peak was 877 medals in 2022, showing that the Games have expanded significantly in scale and number of events over the decades.

Chad le Clos tops the list with 13 total medals, including 7 gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze. Marcus Stephen follows closely with 12 medals (7 gold, 5 silver), and Emily Seebohm rounds out the top three with 11 medals. A stacked bar chart breaks down each of the top 10 athletes' medal counts by type (gold, silver, bronze), making it easy to compare their achievements.

Athletics is the top medal-producing sport with 2,609 medals, followed by Swimming (1,955) and Weightlifting (892). England leads Athletics with 584 medals, while Australia dominates Swimming with an impressive 805 medals. Other standout performances include Australia leading Weightlifting, Cycling, and Diving, while England tops Boxing, Shooting, and Judo, and Canada dominates Wrestling and Gymnastics. Two charts were created: one showing the top 10 sports by total medals, and another highlighting which team leads each of those sports.

The gap between male and female medal winners has narrowed dramatically over the years. Early on, in 1930, male athletes won 85.1% of medals compared to just 14.9% for female athletes. By 2026, the split had become nearly even, with males at 50.1% and females at 49.9% of medals awarded. This represents a 35 percentage point shift toward gender parity in medal distribution.

Analyzing medal totals across all Olympic Games editions, the historical average was 431.9 medals per edition with a standard deviation of 279.2. Using a z-score threshold of z 2, no editions were flagged as statistically unusual—meaning medal counts across different Games editions have followed a fairly consistent, predictable pattern relative to this dataset's variability. A bar chart was generated showing total medals for every Games edition, which would highlight any outliers in red if they existed, but all editions fell within the normal range (shown in blue).

The analysis examined how many distinct events each sport offered across different Olympic Games editions, tracking growth or decline over time. Data tables were generated showing the breakdown of event counts by sport and year, which can be used to identify which sports have expanded their event lineups the most and which have seen reductions.

The analysis generated two stacked bar charts showing how Olympic medals break down by Event Gender category (Men, Women, Mixed) across every Games edition. The first chart displays raw medal counts stacked per Games, while the second shows the proportional share of each gender category per edition, making it easy to see how Women's and Mixed events have expanded their share of total medals relative to Men's events over time.

The analysis compared medal breakdowns for the top 10 countries by Country Code, calculating what percentage of each country's total medals were Gold, Silver, or Bronze. Two visualizations were created: a stacked bar chart showing raw Gold, Silver, and Bronze counts for each country, and a second chart ranking countries by their Gold-to-total medal ratio (efficiency). Two detailed data tables were also generated with the full breakdown of counts and percentages for each country.

The data covers both Summer and Winter Olympics, broken down by sport. Athletics (Summer) has the most participation with 2,609 records involving 2,019 unique athletes across 111 events. Gymnastics (Summer) stands out for medal density, awarding 1.87 medals per unique athlete, the highest among major sports. Swimming and Weightlifting also show strong medal density (1.70 and 1.77 respectively), suggesting these sports have more repeat medalists or team events producing multiple medals per athlete. Two bar charts compare participation and medal density across the top 15 sports by season, and a detailed summary table breaks down records, athlete counts, event counts, and medal splits (Gold/Silver/Bronze) for every Season-Sport combination.