Bach will officially open the biennial multi-sports event as it returns to the small republic within Italy which - with the support of the IOC and the European Olympic Committees (EOC) - first hosted it back in 1985.

He is also expected to attend several events during the following day's competition.

Former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch visited those first Games and returned for their second hosting by San Marino in 2001, when he was accompanied by the man who was about to succeed him, Belgium's Jacques Rogge.

"The presence of the IOC President Thomas Bach is a cause for great pride," Gian Primo Giardi, President of San Marino's National Olympic Committee (CONS), told a pre-Games press conference held at the Palazzo Graziani.

"In addition to him we will also have some of the leading figures in the EOC, which also provided financial support to the Organising Committee, and we can confirm the presence of nine members of the IOC.

"This is a great consideration for us, in short, of which we are proud.

"Our Italian neighbours will send their NOC President Giovanni Malagò and secretary general Roberto Fabbricini."

San Marino's secretary of sport, Marco Podeschi, added: "This will be a unique Games.

"It will be the most important sports event we have ever organised in San Marino and we want everything to be perfect."

A total of 222 athletes from eight nations took part in the first Games, with this year's expected to involve more than 900 athletes from nine countries.

Competing states at the GSSE - which Giardi calls "our small Olympics" - have to be members of the EOC with a population of less than a million.

Andorra, Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro and San Marino will all be taking part.

Because of the limited populations of most involved states, competitors do not have to be citizens of the countries they represent, but they must have lived there for at least three years.

The full Big Read on the GSSE can be found here.