Kevan Gosper competed in the 400 metres at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and was captain of the Australian athletics team at the Rome Olympics four years later. He has spent much of the rest of his life associated with the Olympic movement, being nominated to the International Olympic Committee in 1977 and rising to become its vice president and one of its most high-profile figures. In his life in sport, he was the inaugural chairman of the Australian Institute of Sport and later president of the Australian Olympic Committee. A successful businessman, Gosper was chief executive of Shell Australia. He was also Chief Commissioner of the City of Melbourne, a city where he still lives with his wife, Judy. They have two children, Richard and Sophie.

01Who is your hero/heroine - sporting or otherwise?

Jesse Owens.

02What was your greatest act of courage?

Having the courage of my convictions.

03What is the most memorable sporting event you have witnessed?

American swimmer Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

04Which sporting event in history would you most like to have attended?

The 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

05What keeps you awake at night?

Reflecting on personal under-performance.

06Which talent would you most like to have?

Concert pianist.

07What bores you?

Small talk.

08On which occasions do you lie?

To protect a confidence.

09What trait do you most deplore in others?

Cheating.

Roger Federer.

11Who doesn't - and why?

Marion Jones - drug cheat.

Driving my BMW Z3 Roadster.

'Churchill and Australia' by Graham Freudenberg.

Book: 'The Big Bam - The Life and Times of Babe Ruth' by Leigh Montville.

Film: 'Chariots of Fire'

Captain James Cook.

16What is the greatest sports venue in the world?

The Melbourne Cricket Ground because of its history, location, sporting architecture, sight lines, spectator capacity, playing surface, back of house facilities, access, parking and the sheer magic, having competed in it at the 1956 Olympic Games.

17Which living person/people do you most admire?

Nelson Mandela. He emerged from imprisonment after 26 years with no bitterness and put his whole soul and heart into the defeat of apartheid and set South Africa on the road to democracy. I was fortunate enough, as first Vice President of the IOC, to head a delegation which attended his inauguration as President in Pretoria in 1994 and hold great memories of our negotiations and conversations during this period, with IOC African legal icon, Judge Keba Mbaye from Senegal.

18What sport don't you ‘get'?

I do my best to accommodate all sports which are organised and based on the rules of fair play.

19Who is Australia's greatest sportsman/woman?

Don Bradman.

20How would you like to be remembered?

As a good father.