They're changing the guard at the British Olympic Association (BOA) but the search for a successor to Lord Moynihan as chairman of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) has far wider implications.

The standing of British sport within the international Olympic Movement is as high as it has ever been and Moynihan's seven years at the BOA helm has encompassed the most successful Olympic performances by a British team in over a century.

And Lord Coe's own leadership of the London 2012 Olympic Organising Committee must have given his Presidential ambitions at the International Association of Athletics Federations a tremendous shot in the arm.

Britain can also call upon one of the most powerful men in world sport: Sir Craig Reedie, a chairman of the BOA for 13 years who was elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board in 2009. At the IOC Session in London he was elevated to vice-president, the first Briton to hold such a post since Lord Burghley, Marquess of Exeter, did so in the Sixties, and will lead the Evaluation Commission which assesses the Candidate Cities for 2020.

Adam Pengilly, a skeleton racer, is part of the IOC Athletes' Commission for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, emphasising growing British influence in the corridors of power of Lausanne. International Paralympic Committee chairman Sir Philip Craven is also an IOC member.

IOC President Jacques Rogge paid tribute to Britain's Olympic community at Royal Opera House when the IOC Session opened in July: "Great Britain is recognised as the birthplace of modern sport and it was here that the concept of fair play was codified across rules and regulations."

Sir Craig Reedie (left), alongside IOC President Jacques Rogge and London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, is one of world sport's key powerbrokers

There had been British participation in three Olympics before the BOA was eventually formed in the spring of 1905, but Britons had already been closely involved with the foundation of the IOC. Amateur Athletic Association secretary Charles Herbert was described as part of "an immoveable trinity" by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the driving force behind the Olympic revival.

Lord Howard Vincent, a key figure in the development of Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police, joined the IOC at the turn of the 20th century and was determined to set up a NOC for Britain. His efforts to organise something in time for the 1904 Games in St Louis came to nothing but that summer the IOC met in London and, shortly afterwards, Vincent put his name to a circular which appeared that September.

The document read: "It is proposed to form a British Olympic Association, consisting not only of those interested in athletics for their own sake, but also of those who, recognising the international significance of the Olympic Movement, desire to assist in promoting its success."

Adam Pengilly's place on the Athletes' Commission for Pyeongchang 2018, demonstrates Britain's growing influence within the Olympic Movement

The first chairman was William Henry Grenfell, aka Lord Desborough and an MP for South Buckinghamshire. Still active as a sportsman at 50, he won a silver medal with the fencing team at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revival of the Olympics.

Desborough and the new BOA took on the organisation of the 1908 Olympic Games with great energy. The representatives who sat on the NOC, often described as the British Olympic Council, set about running each of the sports at the Games.

He remained as chairman of the BOA until 1913 and De Coubertin was clearly sorry to see him go, setting great store by the work of his British colleagues. "None of the National Olympic Committees has fulfilled its duties towards the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Movement better than the British Olympic Council," wrote the Frenchman.

Desborough was succeeded by another member of the nobility: the Duke of Somerset. Already in his sixties, his time in charge coincided with the coming of World War One and it was also an era when British sport almost fell out of love with the Olympic Movement. Even before hostilities began, a fundraising committee including no less a figure than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the famous Sherlock Holmes novels, was given the task of raising money to ensure British teams were better prepared for future Games.

Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle helped raise funds for British athletes' preparations in the early 20th century

Conditioned to overwhelming success by the fabulous, but freak, results in the 1908 London Olympics, many people were disappointed by Britain's relative failure – just 41 medals including 10 golds – at the 1912 Games in Stockholm.

When the fighting stopped after four tragic years, veteran Olympic hands, such as BOA secretary Reverend de Courcy Laffan, persuaded the doubters that Britain should attend the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

Another member of the 1908 Organising Committee, William Hayes Fisher, by now known as Lord Downham, had become the new BOA chairman but died a few weeks before the 1920 Olympics began. Laffan took over as emergency chief but these were uncertain times for the movement in Britain.

Many felt that the amateur regulations were being infringed by other nations, particularly through the practice of "Broken Time", an arrangement whereby competitors would be compensated for time away from their normal place of employment. Matters came to a head in the Twenties when there was a very real danger that the British might withdraw from the Olympic Movement altogether. That did not come to pass but footballers did not play at the 1924 or 1928 Games and the home associations also left FIFA, world football's governing body.

Olympic champion Lord Burghley is the BOA's longest-serving chairman with a 30-year tenure

They returned in 1936, the year the BOA had a new and energetic chairman who would prove to be the longest serving of all. Already an IOC member and an Amsterdam 1928 Olympic champion over 400 metres hurdles, Lord Burghley was only 31 when he became BOA supremo in 1936; he remained in the role for 30 years and headed the Organising Committee for the 1948 Olympics. When he eventually stood down he became President of the BOA, one of a select few to take on both roles.

The position of BOA President had been introduced in the Twenties, but this peculiarly British distinction between chairman and President still causes confusion in the wider Olympic world. Indeed, to this day the official IOC directory lists chairman Lord Moynihan as President. In fact, HRH The Princess Royal has held that particular role since 1983; she remains an active advocate of the Olympic Movement, but the chairman has more often been in the firing line – none more so than Sir Denis Follows who was at the helm in 1980.

In the wake of the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan, the British Government of the day, led by Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, tried to force the BOA to boycott the Olympics in Moscow. Follows, however, resisted, saying: "We believe that, despite its imperfections, sport is the greatest force for bringing nations together that exists in the world today. That force should be used as a bridge builder rather than a dam buster."

Sebastian Coe (centre), on his way to 1,500m gold at Moscow 1980, competed after BOA chief Sir Denis Follows defied the British Government to send a team

As a result of the efforts of Follows and others a British team did go to Moscow – among them middle-distance runner Sebastian Coe and rowing cox Colin Moynihan, both future Conservative members of Parliament.

Follows died in 1983, to be succeeded by Charles Palmer, a 10th dan judoka who had been the former's deputy at the time of the Moscow Games, and during his tenure the BOA developed into a much more modern organisation.

Palmer was, in turn, followed by Sir Arthur Gold who had spent his life campaigning against doping in sport; he was responsible for the introduction of a regulation which became known as Gold's Law and stated: "The BOA does not regard it as appropriate to select athletes or other individuals for accreditation to Team GB who have at any point committed a serious doping offence".

Current BOA chairman Lord Moynihan listens to President HRH The Princess Royal

It was a rule which lasted for almost 20 years until the decision earlier this year to force its withdrawal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

This summer, HRH The Princess Royal told her fellow IOC members of "Games built on Britain's rich and proud heritage" but also reminded them: "These Games are also about advancing the Olympic Movement and sport in general in this country and beyond as well as the past."

When the euphoria over London 2012 recedes following today's victory parade through London the search for the 16th chairman of the BOA might prove to be one of the most far-reaching choices yet made by British sport.

Philip Barker, one of the world's most renowned sports historians, is the author of The History of the Olympic Torch, published by Amberley recently. To order a copy click here.