As the bar got more and more crowded, costumes ranged from relatively simple fancy dress to the outlandish and utterly bizarre, with witches, wedding dresses, fairy godmothers and even one man in a lion outfit who may simply have come to the wrong party.

Taking place barely 24 hours after the end of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) General Assembly at the Washington Hilton, it was a clash of two cultures which don’t cross paths too often.

And after a week of being told how diverse and representative sport is becoming, it reinforced my feeling that there remains a long way to go.

But as delegates returned from their evening burger and bud-light, a rather wonderful thing happened, as the sporting administrators stopped to take photos and swap stories with those attending the party.

So impressed were some by the physique of some of those strutting the catwalk, you felt it would have been a good setting for an NOC talent identification scheme.

“A top drag queen is not small,” was one memorable snippet I overheard. “The best are built more like a line-backer”.

Sport is often associated with conservatism and a reluctance to embrace new standards and technologies for as long as possible. 

For three decades under Mexico’s Mario Vázquez Raña, ANOC epitomised this stereotype perfectly. Yet following the arrival of Kuwaiti successor Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah - who, for the record, had left before the pageant - there has been a new lease of life, and, while it has not exactly been a revolution, there has been much progress.

The ANOC World Beach Games provides the best example of this, with the first edition in 2017 having been awarded to San Diego during the General Assembly. After being first announced in late 2013, a short-lived attempt by SportAccord President Marius Vizer aside, the idea did not appear to be making much progress. Even in June we were told how plans were still at a conceptual stage.

Selecting a host less than five months later, and doing so less than two years before the inaugural event is due to be held, is impressive. While cities like Sochi and Phuket and even Kuwait City had been mooted, the choice of San Diego is genuinely inspiring and appears the perfect platform to “make waves”. ANOC seemingly realised this, and turned down a far more lucrative financial offer from the Russians in preference for an iconic location. 

Opinions remain mixed about the new idea, however, and I spoke to several people who believe it is a step too far, and an unnecessary luxury in an already packed competition calendar. And how much additional pressure will it put on the NOCs, they wonder? If, for example, a country does not have a national federation in skateboarding or surfing, but now has athletes demanding to be added to the team, how will they cope and how much support will they have?

But others claim you should embrace the opportunity rather than dwell on the challenges.

As Sheikh Ahmad says, the Games does offer something new and should complement rather than act as a rival to the Olympics. In many ways, it appears a more natural home for the likes of surfing, skateboarding and climbing than the Games itself. All three have been proposed for San Diego along with 22 disciplines, including Esports in a stadium, something which to me still seems bizarre but would certainly be innovative.

Another key idea of Sheikh Ahmad is the ANOC Awards, which appeared a slicker event this time around than on its debut last year in Bangkok.

I was not sure of the need to award International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach with a lifetime achievement award; an unnecessary sucking-up attempt I felt, particularly as he received the ANOC Merit Award last year. But the choice of Bob Beamon, whose 8.90 metres long jump at Mexico 1968 was a world record which stood for 22 years, was a good choice, as was the use of US swimming superstars Ryan Lochte and Katie Ledecky as presenters.

More generally, you feel that with the decline of SportAccord and the exit of Vizer this year, ANOC is more and more important. This was emphasised in a rather long-winded analogy about falcons in which Sheikh Ahmad and Bach sounded like a low-brow comedy double-act quipping about "wings beating together in harmony".

“The Sheikh” as he is generally known, has a lot going on in his native Kuwait as well as in FIFA, where he is a member of the Executive Committee whose backing is seen as crucial for anyone who strives the poisoned chalice of the Presidency. But it is clear where his home remains, and he still appears most comfortable when presiding over ANOC and the Olympic Council of Asia.

As well as the presence of Bach, who gave a 50 minute update on the implementation of Agenda 2020 from which the General Assembly timetable never recovered, we also saw the addition of Kosovo and South Sudan as the 205th and 206th ANOC members. The event also provided a first opportunity for the five cities bidding for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics to make initial meetings and greetings.

Of the five - Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Rome and Paris - it was perhaps unsurprisingly the Californian city which appeared to do best on home turf. Multi-lingual Mayor Eric Garcetti clearly made a good impression while the appearance of US Vice-President Joe Biden, brief and overdue as it was, also went down well, providing the biggest photo opportunity of the meeting among NOC representatives.

The US still has work to do to fully embrace the Olympic World, but is clearly working hard, and, while it will take place shortly after the IOC Session in Lima where a 2024 host will be chosen, San Diego 2017 is another good sign.

A final development was the decision to push next year’s General Assembly back six months and to hold it in Doha rather than Rio de Janeiro. To me, holding a meeting attracting 2,000 delegates appears preposterous so shortly before the Games, particularly given Rio’s problems, so the move appears a wise one.

The Qatari capital will have its work cut-out to match Washington D.C, however, and will do well to match the blend of organisation and entertainment seen last week.

The question we are all wondering is, will they have anything to match the last-night thrill of a drag queen pageant?