It’s exactly 365 days until the opening of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. It’ll be the first to be held in Australia since the Melbourne 2006 Games and the second time they will be held in the Sunshine state. We’re taking the opportunity to reflect back on the success of the 2014 Games.
Australia sent a total of 403 athletes to compete at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games making it one of the biggest teams at the 2014 Games. Of those athletes selected, Victorian Institute of Sport athletes represented just over a tenth of them, with 56 VIS athletes wearing the Green and Gold in Glasgow.
VIS athletes brought home an admirable 28 of the 147 Australian medals won over the course of Games including eight gold, nine silver and eleven bronze.
Swimming was our most successful sport, with nine medals scored in the pool, including three gold. Two from recently retired VIS athlete Belinda Hocking (you can read more about her retirement here), and one from Rio Olympic Gold Medallist Mack Horton. The 2014 Commonwealth Games was Horton’s first, but surely won’t be his last as he begins to look ahead to Gold Coast 2018.
Meanwhile, VIS shooters earnt themselves three medals including gold from Laetisha Scanlan in the Women’s Trap and Adam Vella in the Men’s Trap. Three years later and the VIS has just launched it’s brand new shooting program led by program manager Adam Vella, which will see plenty more shooting talent take aim at a gold medal in the future.
