Apart from the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games is the only major multi-sport event that is not defined by geography or politics.
It is based on the simple fact that all the countries have a common past, ruled by the British, with English as the common language.
That was the situation more than a 100 years ago, when the idea of the Games was first put forward one year before Baron Pierre de Coubertin suggested a revival of the Olympics in 1892.
The idea finally came to fruition in 1930 for the first Empire Games at Hamilton, Canada.
About 400 athletes turned up; most were housed in a local school.
As the British Empire shrank, the name had expanded to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games by 1954, but by 1978 it had become known as just the Commonwealth Games.
The survival of the Games into the next millennium is a sporting enigma.
One answer may be that it's known as the Friendly Games.
An official of the Olympic Council of Malaysia says the element of competition is second, with friendship coming first.
It's also regarded as the halfway house between the Asian Games and the Olympics - and the Commonwealth Games is the only major event to have a mission statement, which says the Games should be "merrier and less stern" than the Olympics and, as it says, "will substitute the stimulus of novel adventure for the pressure of international rivalry".
There's no doubt that the athletes here are more relaxed than when appearing in major championships, but the facilities here would rival any in the world.
Like the athletes, Kuala Lumpur is using the Games as a stepping-stone towards greater glory.
The city's next target is the Asian Games and, by the year 2020, the biggest show of all: the Olympic Games.