The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, head of the Commonwealth, and Manchester was selected ahead of London using a recycled part of the project, which lost the 2000 Summer Olympics and Paralympics to Sydney, Australia.
The Games were, prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing the London 1948 Summer Olympics in terms of teams and athletes participating. The Games had the largest number of events of any Commonwealth Games in history, featuring 281 events across 17 sports.
