Malcolm Arnold with his award alongside Sergey Bubka ©IOC Media

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has paid tribute to the winners of the IOC Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards, Malcolm Arnold and Ulla Koch, who received commemorative statuettes in a ceremony at Lausanne's Olympic Museum.

Bach told them: "We all know that as athletes we would be nothing without the coaches."

The award is given to coaches who "have gone above and beyond to develop and nurture athletes in the spirit of Olympism".

Veteran athletics coach Arnold was described as "the most humble and unassuming character, who created a culture where the athlete strived to be the best he could be".

He began his Olympic career with Uganda in 1968 and guided John Akii-Bua to 400 metre hurdles Olympic gold in 1972.

"He was a very stubborn young man, but we persevered with him and eventually he became world record holder and Olympic champion," Arnold said. 

"The significant thing was that he was technically excellent, which was something the experts were not expecting from an African. 

"He was a superb athlete, but suffered all sorts of problems politically - and really that was the end of his career. 

"Comradeship is very important and we are very proud in the family to know that we keep contact with John's daughter. 

"His granddaughter has actually trained with me - she is not going to be as good as John, but it is important to emphasise the family side of things."

Arnold also coached Canada's Olympic 110m hurdles champion Mark McKoy - and among his charges in his native Great Britain were 110m hurdles world champions Colin Jackson and 400m hurdles gold medallist Dai Greene.

Women's award winner Koch became national coach of the German gymnastics team in 2005.

Her citation read: "This coach is a strong advocate for a culture of appreciation of coaches.

"Besides the numerous athletes she has coached to success, she tirelessly works in educating her fellow coaches."

"Normally I am not speechless, because women and coaches talk a lot, but when I got the information that I had won this award, I was really speechless and very surprised," Koch said.

"I feel very honoured and grateful because I stand here for a lot of female coaches."

Koch actually turned down a chance to coach the British team in 2012 because she lacked the linguistic ability.

"My language was not good enough to change the country. 

"The British Federation asked me before the London [Olympic] Games to come and be head coach for London, but for me it is so important to use words to an athlete and English is not my natural language or my mother language, it was difficult to say everything for the gymnast. 

"Therefore I stayed in Germany."

Some 50 coaches had been nominated by Olympians, National Olympic Committees and International Federations.

The final choice was made by a panel of five, led by IOC Entourage Commission chairman Sergey Bubka.

He told insidethegames: "This selection committee did not have an easy task - to select the two best was very very difficult.

"The coach is the most influential person in the entourage of the athletes.

"Of course they develop the athletes, they contribute a lot, they guide them. 

"But for me they are also responsible for contributing to their general life, helping them to be successful.

"I was lucky with my coach, Vitali Petrov - he taught me so much, he was like a second father for me."