Teams from more than 70 Commonwealth nations and territories are taking part in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
The 12-day event, beginning 4 April, looks very different from the original Games held in Canada some 88 years earlier, which featured just 400 athletes from 11 countries.
Humble beginnings
When a group of athletes gathered in Hamilton, Canada in 1930, they had little idea the competition would one day encompass competitors from every continent in the world, representing some 30 per cent of the global population.
The suggestion for a sporting championship for members of the British Empire was first made in the late 1890s, but was sidelined until 1911, when a sporting festival was held as part of celebrations for the coronation of King George V.
Plans were again shelved until August 1930, when athletes in the first Games competed in events including athletics, lawn bowls, swimming and wrestling.
Tom Heenan, a sport studies lecturer at Monash University, said the Games - originally called the Empire Games - were a demonstration of British unity and might.
The idea was to "create a link between English-speaking countries within the Empire," he told SBS News.
Memorable moments
Held every four years - with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to the outbreak of war - the competition underwent several name changes and became known as the Commonwealth Games from 1978 onwards.
It has witnessed some of history’s biggest sporting moments.
The 1954 Games in Vancouver saw England's Sir Roger Bannister, who died this year, beat Australia's John Landy in the so-called "Miracle Mile" race - the two men at the time were the only people in the world to have broken the four-minute barrier.
Several male athletes have since run under four minutes, with the record now lowered by almost 17 seconds.
Australian John Landy, right, comes second to four-minute-mile great Roger Bannister. (AAP) Source: Supplied
Twenty years after it was first broken, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were the subjects of another memorable moment when they were allegedly late for an official engagement after staying to watch England’s Precious McKenzie win his third consecutive gold medal in weightlifting in Christchurch.
Commonwealth controversies
The Games have also been the site of protest.
The 1934 event, awarded to Johannesburg in South Africa, was moved to London after the pre-apartheid government refused to allow non-white competitors.
More than four decades later, 32 of 59 countries boycotted the 1986 competition in Edinburgh over the UK government's refusal to cut ties with South Africa over its apartheid policy.
Australia's highs and lows
In 1990, a 16-year-old Cathy Freeman became the first Aboriginal woman to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the 4x100 metre relay.
At the next Games in Canada, Freeman did a lap of honour around the racetrack following her victory in the 400 metres carrying both the Australian and Aboriginal flags. It was a decision that angered Australia’s Chef de Mission, Arthur Tunstall, who threatened to send her home.
Ignoring him, Freeman again displayed the Aboriginal flag after her win in the 200 metres.
The pair later reconciled, with the moment now viewed as a significant one for acknowledging Australia’s Indigenous peoples.
Australia's Cathy Freeman walks a lap of honour, carrying the Australian and Aboriginal Flags, after winning Gold in the Women's 400m Finals. Source: AAP
Australia has participated in every competition, winning more than 2,200 medals, and hosted more times than any other nation. Dr Heenan said Australia’s attitude to the Games has changed over time, but it takes the contest particularly seriously.
“Australia marks its success on the Commonwealth Games, oddly enough, it’s an odd point about Australian nationalism,” he said.
“You start off the Commonwealth Games with this feeling that we're in a family of Empire - by the time we have the new nationalism in the 70s we're beginning to define ourselves against England.”
A chance for tiny nations
Though there are 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, 71 teams take part in the Games, with many territories and island states such as Guernsey, Scotland and Montserrat competing individually.
According to Dr Heenan, the sporting competition shines the spotlight on nations - and sports - that often go unnoticed, such as Nauru, which has a history of doing well in weightlifting.
He adds that sports like lawn bowls, which has a large following, get the chance to compete on the international stage.
What to expect in 2018
The 2018 competition will see beach volleyball, para-triathlon and women's rugby sevens make their debut.
And it’s the first time a Commonwealth Games will be held in a regional Australian city, with state, federal and local governments spending around $2 billion to get the contest up and running.
It will be the most gender-equal competition yet, with the same amount of medal events to be held for men and women for the first time ever in a major multi-sporting event.
General view of the Athletes Villages during a media tour of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Athletes Village on the Gold Coast, Source: AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Six-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Dawn Fraser told SBS News she was proud she helped blaze a trail for women athletes.
The swimming champion, who competed in two Commonwealth Games, said nothing compares to competing on home soil.
"To walk out on to your arena and know that 90 per cent of the people sitting in the stands are there for you, that builds you up,” she said.
Reflecting on his time in the competition, former swimmer Kieren Perkins said the Games are often considered more "friendly" than many major sporting events.
"You've got so many countries, so many athletes, competing in so many different sports all coming together and it creates this carnival atmosphere that's just unlike anything else you do,” he said.
