Despite citing difficulties at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and Rio 2016 Olympics and a scare at the London 2012 Olympics, Stanley, 64, told olympics.org.nz:

"All that paled compared to the problems we had in sending teams to Tokyo and Beijing for the Summer (2021) and Winter Olympic Games (2022) and having to deal with the Covid situation.

"It required a huge amount of preparation and planning to enable us to field full teams and to do everything we could to keep our athletes safe while they were at the Games."

In terms of "dramas along the way", Stanley noted: "Delhi in 2010 was one of those.

"When the leadership team got to Delhi they found conditions in the athletes village so bad they didn't feel they could bring our team in until significant improvements were made.

"Other nations held a similar view.

"That position put the organisers on notice and finally the necessary improvements were made.

"There were similar problems, though not quite as severe, with unfinished apartments confronting our advance guard when they got to Rio in 2016.

"There was also that glitch in 2012 when an administrative error briefly looked as if it might prevent Dame Valerie Adams from competing."

In future, Stanley’s current job will be shared by two people.

"The scope of the role has expanded, driven by the increased number of Games New Zealand now competes in, growing international commitments and the governance of a high-performing organisation that has had to more than treble in size and turnover to keep pace with the needs of athletes and stakeholders," an olympics.org.nz release said.

As a double world champion rower - he was in the eight that won the title in 1982 and retained it a year later before missing out on a medal by one place at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics - and a progressive chief executive of Rowing New Zealand from 1994 to 2003, he brought huge experience and commitment to his Olympic Committee task.

He became a New Zealand Olympic Committee Board member in 2004 and succeeded Eion Edgar as President of the Board in 2009.

At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, New Zealand won only one gold medal - Rob Waddell in the single sculls - and four medals in all.

"Compare that to what followed at the Olympic Games, building up to the record number of medals and many quality performances at Rio and then Tokyo," Stanley said.

"That’s been matched by success at the Commonwealth Games.

"We used to have a few sports we were traditionally strong in.

"But look at what’s happened - medals in shooting, canoe slalom, trampolining, women’s pole vault, boxing, tennis - and some really great world figures like Dame Val Adams, Nick Willis, Tom Walsh, Dame Lisa Carrington, and several of our rowers, sailors and cyclists.

"Also, we’ve become increasingly competitive at Winter Olympic Games."

Stanley was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sport in 2016 and was an Olympic and Commonwealth Games selector, chairman of the New Zealand Academy of Sport North Island and in 2010 helped to establish High Performance Sport New Zealand, of which he was a Board member until 2017.

He will maintain strong links with New Zealand sport by continuing in the position he has held since 2004 as chief executive of AUT Millennium, the high performance, sport and recreation facility on the North Shore.