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Australian Institute of Sport

Athlete Performance Health

Availability is the greatest ability of an elite athlete

The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) mission is to lead and enable a united and collaborative high performance system that supports Australian athletes to achieve international podium success.

Over the past three years we have worked with approximately 14 sports and the National Institute Network (NIN) – one of the standout partnerships has been an 85 per cent reduction in injuries in Triathlon Australia’s HP program.

We support National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) and the NIN to design and implement athlete health strategies as a consistent part of high performance programs.

Surfing Australia's Sally Fitzgibbons and Australian Diving athletes have taken part in the Athlete Performance Health program.

Athlete Performance Health Program Objectives

The Athlete Performance Health was developed to provide support and expertise to sports and their athletes to increase the probability of athletes reaching peak performance and maintaining their health ahead of Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Athlete Performance Health objectives are to:

Quantify and prioritise areas of health requiring prevention within sports and across sports

Embed prevention systems into National Sporting Organisations

Increase awareness of the impact of health on performance outcomes

Build workforce capability across the sports industry related to health

Improve the efficiency of the health system within the sporting sector

Lead and enable a connected high performance health system focussed on improving the health and performance of Australian athletes

Lead the creation of new knowledge related to athlete health and its relationship with performance

Lead the implementation of research findings using innovative and proven methods to increase adoption of new knowledge

Research at the AIS

The AIS offers a number of PhD scholarships based at the AIS campus in Canberra. The positions are fully funded in collaboration with partner organisations including various Australian Universities and Institutes of Sport. The Athlete Performance Health team also supports PhD candidates external to the AIS, with many embedded in National Sporting Organisations, State Institutes or professional sporting teams. The PhDs contribute important research output to Australian sport to ultimately improve athlete health and performance.

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