The Oceania Tennis Federation mourns the death of Kevan Gosper who passed away yesterday, aged 90. Kevan was well known to the Oceania Tennis Community as he was to all sporting bodies in our Region and also globally.
He was Vice-President and life member of the Papua New Guinea Athletics Association and General Manager of the 1st Papua New Guinea Commonwealth Games team in 1962; Inaugural Chairman of the Australian Institute of Sport (1980-1985); President of the Australian Olympic Federation (1985-1990); Inaugural Member of the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) Executive Board (1981-); President of ONOC (1989-2009); Vice-President of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Council (1989-); Vice-President of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games Sydney 2000 (1993-2000); Chairman of Olympic Games Knowledge Services (OGKS) (2002-2004); Chairman of the Oceania Australia Foundation; Member of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Ethics commission (2013-); President of the Organization of sports Federations of Oceania (OSFO) (2014-); Member of the International Association Football Federation (FIFA) Independent Reform Committee (2015-)
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 1986 Australia Day honours for services to sport and sports administration. He was inducted in 1990 into the Australian Hall of Fame in Sport. He was the Australian Track and Field national record holder 400 m (1955-1971); gold medal in 400 m at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver in 1954; silver medal in 4×400 m relay at the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956; Captain of Australian track and field team at the Games of the XVII Olympiad Rome 1960
He was an IOC Member from 1977 to 2013; Honorary Member since 2013; Member of the Executive Board (1986-1990, 1995-1999), IOC Vice-President (1990-1994, 1999-2003), Vice-Chairman (1988) then Chairman of the Press Commission (1989-2014); Vice-Chairman of the Olympic Solidarity Commission (2002-2011); Vice-Chairman of the Coordination Commission for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad Beijing 2008 (2002-2008); member of the following Commissions: Olympic Solidarity (1981-1984 then 2015-2017), Programme (1984-1987), Preparation of the XII Olympic Congress – Congress of Unity (1990-1994), Apartheid and Olympism (1989-1992), Centennial Olympic Congress – Congress of Unity, Study (1994-1996), Working Group on Media Coordination (1989-1990), Ethics (1999-2000), “IOC 2000” (Executive Committee, 1999), IOC 2000 Reform Follow-up (2002); Advisor to the Olympic Solidarity Commission (2011-); Member of the Press Committee Working Group (2015-).