The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will make global sport history by becoming the first ever major multi-sport event to award more medals to women than men.
The medal event programme, published today, confirms there will be 136 medal events for women and 134 for men. This will see the Birmingham 2022 Games go one step further than the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, when there were an equal number of medals for women and men.
Birmingham 2022’s sports programme includes T20 cricket for women for the first time at a Commonwealth Games, with eight teams competing at the internationally renowned Edgbaston Stadium.
There will be 13 mixed male/female events, more than ever before, including synchronised 3m springboard diving and synchronised 10m platform diving, swimming relays, and para athletics relays.
Above: Dame Valerie Adams & Eliza McCartney with their medals at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
10km race walks for men and women, which will take place on the track at the redeveloped Alexander Stadium, have also been added to the athletics programme. This will give athletes like Team England’s Tom Bosworth, who won silver in the 20km road version of the event at the Gold Coast 2018 Games and World Junior 10km race walking champion, Callum Wilkinson, the chance to compete at more than one major championships in the summer of 2022.
The Games will also feature more para sport than any previous Commonwealth Games, with wheelchair basketball 3 x 3 included in the integrated programme for the first time, alongside para athletics, para swimming, para cycling track, para table tennis, para triathlon, para lawn bowls and para powerlifting.
England and Warwickshire cricketer Amy Jones is aiming to compete for Team England in T20 Cricket at Birmingham 2022. She said:
“It’s absolutely brilliant that women’s cricket is taking centre stage at my home Games, and I can’t wait to compete for gold at the world-famous Edgbaston Stadium, which also happens to be my home ground.
“I’m proud that Birmingham 2022 is giving women’s sport such a huge platform, and I have no doubt that it will inspire young girls in the West Midlands and around the world to follow in our footsteps.”
The medal event programme can be viewed here.
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