Muhammad Ali meets Pele, who meets Carl Lewis, who meets Mark Spitz, who meets Rod Laver. The list goes on. More than 50 of the living legends of sport will gather in the opulent surroundings of the Vienna State Opera House next month for a once-in-a-century occasion.
'We tried to think how we could mark the millennium with a special event, and the more I thought about it the more I realised that there are no world sports awards.
'You have the Oscars for the movies and the Grammys for music, but there is nothing for the world's top sportsmen and women. So the idea was born and we decided to go for it.' The words of Hubert Neuper, Olympic ski jumping silver medallist in 1980 and now president of the Austrian Sports Aid Association, Sporthilfe - and he has been 'going for it' with increasing intensity over the past few months.
The result is the World Sports Awards of the Century, a glittering gala night that will honour the gods and goddesses of the playing field, running track, pool and ring and beam their achievements around the world.
Bringing together so many sporting legends under one roof for a worldwide TV audience of hundreds of millions ranks as a spectacular achievement - one Neuper attained with vision, tenacity and a little help from the Austrian government.
'The first step was to go to our government and raise the possibility of Austria hosting a century-ending world sports awards spectacular,' he says.