Sir Tay passed away on Sunday (October 26) after a lifetime serving New Zealand sport as an administrator.

"Sir Tay was a man full of passion for sport. He believed strongly in the integrity of sport, and spent most of his life working to protect it," said IOC President Thomas Bach.

"The entire Olympic Movement will miss him. We express our deepest sympathies to the family of Tay Wilson and the Olympic community in New Zealand."

In 1980, Sir Tay served as Chef de Mission to the small group of New Zealand athletes that took part in the Moscow Olympic Games.

Sir Tay led canoeists Ian Ferguson, Alan Thompson and Geoff Walker, and modern pentathlete Brian Newth, at the Games which were officially boycotted by the New Zealand Government over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

The team competed under the Olympic rings and fern emblem rather than the New Zealand flag.

Four years later Sir Tay served as Deputy Chef de Mission to the New Zealand team at the Games in Los Angeles before being made secretary general of the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) in 1985, a position he held until 1990.

Sir Tay Wilson was Chef de Mission for the small New Zealand team that took part in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow ©Getty Images

Sir Tay began his sporting career as a competitor in rowing and was a national double sculls champion in 1959 later going on to become chairman and a life member of the New Zealand Rowing Association.

He also had interests in swimming, hockey, golf and badminton which contributed to his election as an IOC member in 1988, serving on the New Sources of Financing Commission and the Finance Commission up until 2006, when he became an honorary member.

He was also awarded New Zealand's Olympic Order in 2006 and was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the Olympics and Commonwealth Games the following year before being knighted in 2009.

Up until his death, Sir Tay served as the President of the New Zealand Pierre de Coubertin Committee.

He also held a number of other international roles, including as secretary general of the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) from 1989 to 1993, while also holding positions on the Finance Committees of ONOC and the Commonwealth Games Federation, as well as the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).

He was also a member of the ANOC Executive Committee for two spells from 1989 to 1993 and 1996 to 2000.

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