But he also - and this was part of his value to the Movement at a time when it was striving, successfully, to bolster its finances - pursued a notably high-powered business career, acting as chairman and chief executive of Shell Australia for more than a decade.

Kevan Gosper recently became an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee, having joined it in 1977 ©Getty Images

Looking back over six decades of international sport - and forward to the challenges facing Thomas Bach, the IOC's new President - Gosper exhibits the breadth of reference and thoughtful, unhurried speaking manner you would expect of someone whose life has been spent at or near the summit of large multinational organisations. He would, I am sure, be as much at home in Davos as Lausanne.

The world of sport was, of course, a very different, and frankly much more innocent and amateurish place when Gosper burst into the public eye by driving a green Ford across America from Michigan, where he was studying, to the west coast and winning the individual 440 yards at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.

This was the year in which one of the great sporting landmarks of the age had been achieved in Oxford by Roger Bannister when he became the first athlete to run a sub-four-minute mile. Gosper's triumph actually came on the same day as the so-called "Miracle Mile", pitting Bannister against his great rival, Gosper's friend and fellow Australian John Landy. Bannister won in a contest that saw two men go under four minutes for the first time in the same race.

"When I was younger, sport was a leisure opportunity," Gosper reflects from Australia. "It was an expression of society which was slower moving, more constrained, less technological, less commercial."

Today, "sport has moved from being an optional amateur opportunity to a form of work, a profession.

"It's more serious, more important and better for all parties."

He goes on: "In the case of Australia, it is absolutely built into our psyche. I think it's more so now [than 50 years ago] because people are far more active in participation.

"I have got my clippings from 1954 and 1956 and there was a ...huge response to good performance. But it would go away quite quickly. It's more sustained today."

Furthermore, "when I was competing, it was very much a Euro-America-centric concept. It was going on elsewhere, but to a much lesser extent."

Kevan Gosper (left) helping Australia take the silver medal in the 4x400m relay at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The early part of Gosper's time as an IOC member coincided with the Olympic boycott era. He actually voted against the Australian team attending the Moscow Games in 1980, although he acknowledged in his autobiography that, "with all I know today about politicians and the Olympic movement, I would have taken a different position...I should have defended the right of the Australian team to go".

With the Games about to return to Russia, the "b" word has once again entered the Olympic lexicon. Only this time, those staying away are political leaders, with no serious consideration of an athletes' boycott. I wondered what Gosper made of this evolution.

"I think the pre-boycott era and the boycott period was a reflection of Governments being fairly uninterested in sport and lacking in knowledge of how significant sport was to society in general," he tells me.

"Many Governments, especially the democratic ones, were taken by surprise at how resistant the sporting structure was to Government interference.

"I think they got the message from society that they were hurting the athletes but not winning the argument.

"Governments now not only see sport as being important to society...but they also see it as a great instrument for presenting themselves to the world, especially the bigger events.

"In the last 50 years, most Governments who have been host to Olympic Games and the bigger World Championships have seen it as an opportunity to bring forward and justify, with much less resistance, associated infrastructure.

"Take Sochi, the Putin vision was to make Sochi not just a leisure resort in the summer, but to make it a year-round resort destination for the Russian people. He hasn't just built those facilities for the Winter Games...

"Governments have matured in their understanding of the value of sport to the harmony of society."

Kevan Gosper did not think Australia should have attended the 1980 Olympics in Moscow after the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan but admits in his autobiography - An Olympic Life - that he was wrong ©Amazon

So does he think then that boycotts by politicians are a way of making a point without affecting the Games in any way? He concurs: "Not being in the stand doesn't interfere with the Games."

As a figure of such vast experience, both inside the Olympic Movement and beyond, I thought it was worth asking Gosper for an assessment of the big challenges confronting Thomas Bach.

His answer suggests that he shares a view I have encountered frequently among Olympic heavyweights in recent times: that while the direction of travel is not necessarily clear, the pace of change may be set to accelerate.

"I felt that this next Presidency was going to be very important because of the rate of change," he tells me.

"[Jacques] Rogge [Bach's predecessor] had a very steady hand. I believe that Bach is facing the sort of change that is hard to define at this stage."

Could he elaborate?

In response, he highlights three areas of potentially far-reaching impact where he thinks uncertainty exists.

• Communications technology: which he thinks could "cause a certain amount of division" because users require "a certain amount of education" to make the most of it.

• Banking systems: which are "far more complex than in the past".

• Politics: he alludes to some "extraordinary reversals" in different parts of the world.

While he characterises his relationship with Bach prior to last year's Presidential campaign as "courteous" rather than "close", he has clearly formed the view that the German is up to the task.

"I was persuaded to get to know him better, and as I did it became pretty clear to me that he had a stronger background for the job than Richard [Carrión, runner-up in the Presidential race] and I moved to support him," he says.

"I think he has an excellent background and a high level of awareness, and I find him highly consultative."

Kevan Goseper has praised former IOC President Jacques Rogge for having a "steady hand" and has been impressed by the early work of his successor Thomas Bach ©AFP/Getty Images

Observing, no doubt from experience, that "no-one knows how remote the top job is from the rest of the organisation" in any body, he says he would encourage Bach "while being his own man...to be very open to good counsel, and be very perceptive on where the counsel is coming from and the quality of the counsel.

"I would be inclined to say, 'Don't try and resolve all matters too quickly'".

He goes on:

"[Juan Antonio] Samaranch [IOC President from 1980 to 2001] had a saying – "It's better to avoid than to solve" – I think that's a very important feature of leadership,

"But I think he is very ready for the Presidency. He will mature in that role like everybody does. I see him there for the long term."

On a more specific point, Gosper observes "it is very important that we keep a high quality membership".

He notes that during his time in the IOC, additional "constituencies" were introduced in the shape of international sports federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and athletes. There has also been a move to globalise the membership more.

It is, he says, "pretty clear to me" that the individuals of these constituencies "carry responsibilities with their own constituencies. That creates a different dynamic from my early days...

"[Bach's] success will depend on the quality of the membership he passes on to his successor and the success of the Olympic Games."

Kevan Gosper has no plans to wave farewell to the Olympic Movement for a while yet ©AFP/Getty Images

On that second point, I chip in, doesn't Bach have some tough challenges looming?

He retorts by alluding to the three IOC Presidents he served the bulk of his time under – Lord Killanin, Samaranch and Rogge – and concluding, "all of them have had some tough ones...

"I believe Sochi will be a successful Games.

"Yes, there are challenges with Rio because global economics have changed so dramatically."

But: "We are very good at knowledge transfer. I have known no organisation that is so open and enthusiastic about transfer of people, knowledge and information. It doesn't mean you have all the answers, but you are best equipped. There will be some unforeseen demands in Rio. We will get through them."

After that, Pyeongchang and Tokyo "will do what they said they will do.

"The big challenge is to get through Rio and then things will be fairly straight sailing."

There is one other thing which, as a Brit, I wanted to raise with Gosper. Team GB at the moment seems to have unearthed the secret of Summer Olympic success. Yet Australia, for the best part of a decade, had seemed privy to the same secret, only to slump back to tenth in the medals table, with only seven golds, at London 2012. Is Olympic success inevitably cyclical, and is Australia's experience therefore, metaphorically speaking, the chronicle of Team GB's death foretold?

"I know from business as well as sport that cycles are inevitable," he replies. "Change is inevitable. Nothing stays the same.

"However, there are systems, institutions, organisations which somehow manage to sustain a good performance...

"So it's not necessary that you come and go, or go good for a short period then bad. That's poor management.

"I think Australia had an aberration. [Our] flagship team [swimming] took us by surprise. In other sports we held up quite well...

"However, it was a good shake-up for us. I think we will be moving back into a top five spot if not in Rio, then certainly by Tokyo.

"I believe Great Britain, having tasted the success of London will do everything possible to stay where it is. They are very well financed. The Government understands how important the performance of the team is...

"They probably won't replicate London in Rio, but there's no reason for them to fall far short."

It is a reassuring answer from a much-respected manager who, having just returned from a big Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) gathering in Manila, shows little sign of slowing down just yet.

There is, he muses as the conversation ends, "a fine balance between knowing when to go and being ready to stay if invited". I would advise him not to expect the invitations to start drying up any time soon.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.