Diving

More than 3,200 competitors from 66 eligible nations will meet in Victoria on August 18 to participate in the XV Commonwealth Games. In her Commonwealth Day Message this year, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II said it was appropriate that sport is the theme for Commonwealth Day, as the most popular Commonwealth event will be Victoria's Games and the linked cultural festival. The Queen will open the Games in the newly-expanded 32,000 seat Centennial Stadium, close to the Athletes'Village on the University of Victoria campus. Her youngest son, Prince Edward, will attend the Closing Ceremony on August 28, 1994. The four stamps being issued on August 5 will complement the se tenant pair of stamps issued on May 20. The stamps show athletes participating in various events, the Queen's Baton and with flowers forming a framing feature. The men's wheelchair marathon and women's high jump form a 43¢ se tenant pair, while women's diving is depicted on the 50¢ value and men's cycling is the subject of the 88¢ stamp. Diving, swimming and synchronized swimming make up some 41 aquatic events. Diving can be traced back to 400 B.C. when the Egyptians and Romans portrayed this aquatic event on vases. Cliff diving was practiced by Vikings in the 8th to 10th centuries and has been a feature at Acapulco since the late 1700s. Competitive diving, a sport in which Canadians have always fared well, began in Germany in the 1880's, became an Olympic sport in 1904, and has been a feature since the first Commonwealth Games in 1930.