Coles represented Australia in canoeing at three Olympic Games at Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968.

He captained Australia’s team at Tokyo 1964.

After hanging up his paddle, Coles enjoyed a successful career as a sports administrator.

He was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1982 to 2011 and became an honorary member in 2012 after reaching the age limit of 80.

Coles was a former member secretary general of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) and a founding member of the Oceania National Olympic Committees.  

He served on the AOC Executive Committee from 1973 until 2011, the year he stepped down as an IOC member.

"Phil Coles was a man who always cared about the athletes in all his different functions," IOC President Thomas Bach said.

"Their interests were always in his mind and in his heart.

"He was key to getting an Australian Olympic team to the Olympic Games Moscow 1980 against all requests for a boycott.

"It made him proud for the rest of his life to have led these athletes into the Olympic Stadium.

"His love for the Olympic Games was at the centre of his life.

"Personally, I have lost a wonderful friend with whom I shared so many moments of our Olympic lives.

"I will never forget this heart-warming friendliness and his sense of humour.

"My thoughts are with his beloved Patricia and all his family and many friends."

As a driving force behind the project to bring the Olympic Games to his native Australia, Coles served as vice-president and director of the Organising Committee for Sydney 2000 between 1993 and 1999.

"It was hard work," Coles recalled in an interview in 2012.

"More than 60 per cent of the IOC members had never been to Australia at the time and had we not been able to bring those people out to Sydney, we would not have won those Games.

"That was our ace in the hole, being able to show the delegates how beautiful Sydney is."

Coles was forced to stand down from the Organising Committee at Sydney 2000 after he was one of 24 IOC members implicated in the Salt Lake City 2002 bidding bribery controversy in 1998.

An inquiry was held into claims Coles allegedly received lavish "hospitality" from Salt Lake City 2002 officials in return for information.

Coles was given a public reprimand by the IOC and admitted he never really got over the smear.

"I would still dearly like to have my name cleared," Coles later said.

"I have all the evidence, but I'll let it go.

"I'm past it in that it's just a black memory, but it's stamped there and I still find it very difficult.

"I've got heaps of evidence, but to do it [re-open the case] I've got to open up a whole hornet's nest and I don't want to damage the Olympic Movement."

Coles was also accused of taking expensive gold and diamond jewellery from organisers of Athens' failed 1996 Olympic bid.

Nevertheless, Coles received the Olympic Order from the IOC for his distinguished contribution to the Olympic Movement in 2012.

In the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, a number of items of Coles are kept for exhibitions.

He had donated the Australian delegation tracksuit and uniform that he wore at Tokyo 1964, as well as two replicas of the canoes with which he competed at the Games.

As a mark of respect, the Olympic flag will be flown at half-mast at Olympic House in Lausanne for three days, Bach announced.