Australian Olympic powerbroker and medallist Kevan Gosper has passed away, aged 90, after a career that stamped him as a giant of Aussie sport.

Gosper won an Olympic silver medal on Australia’s 4x400m relay team at the 1956 Melbourne Games before being renowned as one of the nation’s top sports administrators.

A long-time International Olympic Committee member, Gosper was also the inaugural chairman of the Australian Institute of Sport from 1980.

Gosper served as Australian Olympic Federation president and was a pivotal figure in delivering Sydney’s Olympics in 2000 when he was vice-president of the organising committee.

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) confirmed that Gosper passed away on Friday after a short illness.

Gosper was on the AOC board for decades, while also working as a high-powered corporate executive.

He is a former Shell Australia chairman and chief executive, then headed up the company’s Asia Pacific operations when based in London.

Gosper was also a director of companies including Crown Resorts and Lion Nathan, but throughout his business life remained passionate to the Olympic cause.

His work on the Sydney Olympics played a large role in them famously being branded the ‘best Games ever’ by then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch at the closing ceremony in 2000.

Gosper was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1986 for his services to sport, and was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame three years later.

According to his entry in the Hall of Fame, he was ‘one of the finest 400m runners in the world’ at one stage, taking gold in the race at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and acting as captain of the Aussie athletics team in Melbourne in 1956, as well as the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Controversy struck for Gosper just ahead of the 2000 Games when his daughter Sophie became the first Australian Olympic torchbearer in a shock last-minute announcement.

The Olympics great apologised but denied he had anything to do with the decision.

In a statement, AOC president Ian Chesterman said Gosper had been a global giant in the Olympic movement.

Kevan was one of the true giants of the Olympic movement, not just in Australia but globally,’ Chesterman said.

‘His loss will be felt enormously by so many of his friends who are gathering in Paris for the Olympic Games. There will be so many there from across the world who will have a heavy heart today with the news of Kevan’s passing.

‘Kevan’s impact in Australia was enormous, as a former president of the AOC and a lifetime servant to sport in this country. But internationally his contribution was equally significant.

‘He rose to the heights of the International Olympic Committee as an administrator having performed with distinction in his sport of athletics, a two-time Olympian who won a silver medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.

‘Kevan’s record of service is remarkable, having become an IOC member in 1977 he twice served as IOC vice president and was also twice elected as a member of the IOC executive. He was involved in some of the biggest decisions of his time.’