Across the board, Melbourne will welcome a host of global sports biggest names from the track to the triathlon.
BBC Sport takes a closer look at eight sportsmen and women set to cause a stir during the Commonwealth Games.
Campbell was inspired to take up the sport after watching fellow Jamaican Merlene Ottey in competition.
And the 23-year-old has already managed to follow in her illustrious compatriot's footsteps - she was crowned Olympic 200m champion in Athens, where she also won 100m silver.
She arrives in Melbourne ranked number two in the world at both distances and is tipped to complete the double.
Campbell, who has nine siblings, insists she wants to go into teaching when she hangs up her running spikes.
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Seeing the Fijian flyer in full swing is like watching the barn-storming Jonah Lomu when he was in his prime.
The 25-year-old briefly lit up the World Cup with the good - his 70m solo try against France, the bad - his team-mates inabilty to match him - and the ugly - he was banned for punching Olivier Magne.
He has not done much to avoid controversy since. He moved to Agen in France, much to the chagrin of previous employers Auckland and was banned from playing for Fiji following his reported lack of commitment.
At his peak, though, he is arguably one of the most frightening runners in the global game.
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Ironically, Du Toit hated the water as a child and insisted she never went near it.
However, that all changed and it resulted in her making South Africa's Commonwealth Games team in Malaysia in 1998 at the tender age of 14.
Her career, however, looked to be in ruins when she lost a leg in a now well-documented motorcycle accident three years later.
That failed to deter her and she went on to win disability gold at the Manchester Games in the 50m and 100m freestyle finals.
More remarkably, however, she reached the final of the 800m for able-bodied athletes and was subsequently named the outstanding athlete of the Games.
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The 20-year-old Jones has been in prolific form since switching coaches to Stephen Widmar.
She won 100m and 200m breastroke gold at last year's World Championships and then went on to break both world records at Australia's Commonwealth Games trials.
The 2002 Commonwealths was where she first burst onto the international scene, with gold in her two events as well as in the 4x100m medley relay.
And "Lethal" Leisel, as she is better known at home, is expected to be too good to beat once more.
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Mottram is one of the few male runners in recent years to break up the African hegemony over long-distance running.
He capped that off with a bronze medal behind Benjamin Lino, who will compete at the Games, and Sileshi Sihine in the 5,000m in the 2005 World Championships.
The 25-year-old will clearly have plenty of backing - he lives in host city Melbourne - and previous Commonwealth Games experience - he was sixth in the 5,000m four years ago.
A former triathlete until he switched to the track in 1999, he enjoys football, movies, the beach and drinking coffee when not training or competing.
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Powell very nearly did not make it to athletics' world elite - he had toyed with becoming an electrical engineer before he opted for running.
He arguably has his brother to thank for his position - he reached the semi-finals of the 100m at the 1999 World Championships.
The 23-year-old is one of track's global superstars - he broke the world record in the blue-riband event last June in Athens - a track where he had struggled to fifth in the Olympics.
The Jamaican star has been dogged by injury but is tipped to compete in both the 100m and 200m.
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Australia are the Olympic hockey champions and will be favourite for gold again, especially as they have avoided the strong nations of Pakistan, India and Malaysia in the group draw (they face NZ (who they beat in the 2002 final, England, Canada and Scotland).
The Kookaburras will field eight of their Manchester winning squad, including Livermore who will be the only male player to represent Australia at the three Games since hockey was introduced in 1998.
At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Livermore took the decisive penalty flick in front of 15,000 fans in a semi-final shoot-out - it was saved and Livermore and his team-mates had to settle for bronze.
But he cites the golden goal gold-medal medal win over the Netherlands four years later in Athens as the best moment of his sporting career.
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Uganda had gone 22 years without a World Championship gold medal until women's steeplechaser Dorcus Inzikuru won in Helsinki last year.
And, with her time of nine minutes 15.04 seconds the fastest for the distance, the 24-year-old will be aiming to win the country's first Commonwealth gold since 1990 (when boxers Justin Juko and Godfrey Nyakana triumphed).
She missed a medal at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, finishing fourth in the 5,000m which was won by Britain's Paula Radcliffe.
Another strong medal prospect among Uganda's 10-strong track and field team is former world junior 10,000m champion, Boniface Kiprop, who finished fourth in the 10,000m final in Helsinki and seventh when he debuted in a senior world cross-country long race in France.
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MMIX
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