- Sport
A dwindling population of less than three dozen currently sates its sporting appetite with occasional games of tennis.
Mark StaniforthTuesday 25 November 2025 12:20 GMT
open image in galleryCould the flag of the Pitcairn Islands be raised at a future edition of the Commonwealth Games? (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Archive)
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Two hundred and thirty four years after a band of mutineers from the HMS Bounty washed up on Pitcairn Island, the remaining inhabitants of one of the world’s most isolated settlements have not given up hope of grasping their “Eddie the Eagle” moment on the international stage.
A dwindling population of less than three dozen currently sates its sporting appetite with occasional games of tennis and a sputtering Starlink feed that beams rugby from New Zealand, 3,300 miles to the west.
Shorn of enough active adults to raise two teams, the island’s cricket pitch lies fallow.
Acutely aware of the need to ensure that Pitcairn’s ready-made tale of high seas drama can endure in tangible form for future generations, island officials have not ruled out making a headline-grabbing bid for inclusion in a future edition of the Commonwealth Games.
As a British overseas territory, Pitcairn, which comprises a total land area of 1.8 square miles and whose closest populated neighbour is Mangareva in French Polynesia 400 miles away, has the right, subject to fulfilling various bureaucratic procedures, to compete in the Games.
It is an opportunity that has been taken up by the likes of the Falkland Islands – which has attended every Games since 1982 – and Saint Helena, whose quadrennial appearances have proved much more expedient since the opening of the island’s first airport in 2016.
Pitcairn’s mayor, Simon Young, who became the first non-native to assume the position in 2022, told the PA news agency: “I don’t think there is anything to prohibit Pitcairn from entering the Commonwealth Games and I think it would great for the island if we did.
“I’d never say that it’s not going to happen, because we are sports-orientated in the sense that we get together and have community dinners at the sports field, which has got a volleyball and tennis court, and a cricket pitch.
“I would love the day when somebody (from Pitcairn) will actually attend the Commonwealth Games.
“You had Eddie the Eagle back in the 1980s. I know it’s the friendly games and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose. It would be a very good way to promote Pitcairn.”
The Commonwealth Games Federation confirmed that Pitcairn was theoretically eligible to take part.
Nevertheless it would take a concerted effort by the islanders, who would need to form a Commonwealth Games Association, and demonstrate it could meet requirements related to governance, anti-doping and safeguarding.
But it is the success of Norfolk Island, where many descendants of the original mutineers were relocated by the British government in the mid-19th century due to overcrowding, that has piqued the Pitcairners’ interest.
An Australian overseas territory some 3,000 miles west of Pitcairn, Norfolk Island has won two Commonwealth Games medals, most recently in 2018, both in lawn bowls.
One member of the Norfolk team, John Christian, claimed to be a direct, sixth-generation descendant of Fletcher Christian.
The Pitcairn archipelago – also including the uninhabited Henderson, Ducie and Oeno islands – sits 3,300 miles from New Zealand to its west and 3,500 from Chile, due east.
Yet getting to (and from) the island is not quite the challenge it used to be.
From a two-week voyage from New Zealand when Young first arrived in 1999, it now takes a mere 30 hours, albeit from the far-flung outpost of Mangareva.
A ship, the Silver Supporter, makes the journey 26 times a year, bringing provisions and tourists and often taking locals off it.
Currently, nobody under the age of 16 resides on Pitcairn, which endured a much-publicised child abuse scandal in the early part of the century.
Without a bowling green to appeal to the opposite end of the age spectrum, Pitcairn’s most realistic chance of making an historic debut in Ahmedabad in 2030 would be in persuading an expatriate to bear the island’s coat of arms.
International sport is already due to arrive on the island next July, when a Germany-based company, Marathon Globetrotters, which specialises in organising marathons in remote places around the globe, pitches up on Pitcairn for an inaugural race.
- Pitcairn is one of four islands in the Pitcairn islands archipelago, also including the uninhabited Henderson, Ducie and Oeno islands.
- Pitcairn was settled by mutineers from the Bounty - led by Fletcher Christian - and a group of native Tahitians in 1790.
- Pitcairn is located in the south Pacific, approximately 3,300 miles from New Zealand and 3,500 from the coast of Chile.
- Pitcairn's closest populated neighbour is Mangareva in French Polynesia, which is approximately 400 miles west, or a 30-hour boat trip.
- Pitcairn has a total land mass of less than two square miles. As of November 2025, it has 35 permanent residents in its sole settlement, Adamstown.
Restricted to just 12 competitors due to available berths on the Silver Supporter – and likely to comprise at least 40 laps of the precipitous dirt roads that encircle the island’s capital, Adamstown – it is destined to be one for the purists and perhaps not the locals.
“The marathon will promote Pitcairn in a positive way and bring forward the idea of sports,” added Young, who became a permanent resident of Pitcairn in 1999, having grown up in the distinctly un-tropical town of Pickering in North Yorkshire.
“The course will be very circular. It’s very hilly, but we don’t have any traffic regulations that are going to interfere.
“We had to limit the numbers and the places were filled before the advert went out. The invitation will also be extended to Pitcairners as well – but I would be very surprised if anyone puts their hand up to take part.”
