The once world-leading Australian Institute of Sport desperately needs an overhaul. But the road back to glory will take time – something the country doesn’t have.

“The UK, Japan, France have got better national high-performance facilities than Australia does today.”
Facilities are not the only thing that matters a strong grass-roots culture of sport and a pipeline for emerging talent are also crucial but Australia’s failure to keep up with rival high-performance facilities mirrors its worsening Olympic performance.
Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie. Alex Ellinghausen
Since peaking in the medal count at Sydney in 2000 with 58 medals, 16 of them gold, Australia has slipped. The second-best result came four years later in Athens, with 49 medals 17 of them gold. At Beijing in 2008, the team brought home 46 medals but that slipped to 35 in London 2012. At Rio in 2016, the total was just 29.
“I think we got too complacent,” says Alex Baumann, Swimming Australia’s high-performance chief strategist.
“How do we continue to develop? Where is the next number of quality coaches coming through the system? Secondly, it’s having the resources to be able to do it. We’ve slipped off that as well.”
But it is not just about medals. Success inspires children to take up sport. Sport is also unifying.
“It’s the little glue that keeps us together,” Low says. “It’s something we all have in common.”
Now there is a plan. An AIS proposal, two years in the making, argues the federal government should sell off half of the 66-hectare campus to fund a $375 million overhaul. The expected $200 million from land sales and saving the annual $13 million in maintenance costs would make the project self-funding in the long term.
But the new AIS will be different. For a start, it won’t be the primary training location for as many sports as it once was.
Seven sports are still primarily based at the Canberra campus such as basketball the facility is recognised by the NBA as one of only two centres of excellence outside the US but many run their own elite programs in a range of locations.
Out of time: The sooner work on a redeveloped AIS starts, the better, Low says. Alex Ellinghausen
Swimming Australia, for example, operates 10 Olympic swimming programs across Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Sunshine Coast, Perth and Sydney, and has high-performance programs based at Bond University and TSS Aquatic, a swimming club on the Gold Coast.
The AIS will focus on three areas: paralympic development and training; developing a global centre of excellence for female coaches at Rio in 2016 just 8 per cent of Australian coaches were women; and being a leading-edge sports technology hub that partners with universities and tech companies.
“We obviously are very keen to press on with this project,” Wylie says. “It will deliver substantial benefits to Australian sports and athletes.”
But it is unclear when it will happen. Government wheels often turn slowly, especially for a large capital project that needs cabinet sign-off. Any big project takes a long time and it will take years more for the benefits to show.
Sports Minister Richard Colbeck says the federal government will consider the project “in due course”.
Time, however, is something the country can’t afford. Low, who says it would take eight to 12 years for the benefits of a new facility to come through, says it is crucial to start.
Low, right, and her coach Iryna Dvoskina, who is also senior Para-athletics coach. Alex Ellinghausen
“If we dont lock the changes down and implement it now, we will be left behind in future games,” she says.
But Wylie, whose eight-year tenure as ASC chairman ends in November, suddenly raises an idea that would mean further delay. A redeveloped AIS could be built in south-east Queensland, the region bidding to host the 2032 summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, he says.
“We think that should be looked at,” Wylie says. “We think there is a case now to wait, to see whether Brisbane is successful, Australia is successful, in a bid for the Games in 2032.”
The future of the AIS will also be influenced by a separate assessment of sport infrastructure being prepared by the Australian Olympic Committee, Paralympics Australia and Commonwealth Games Australia. That is due to be handed to the government in April, ahead of the 2021 federal budget.
But Low opposes moving the AIS from Canberra. Many coaches and athletes have relocated their families to Canberra to work there. Many would be unable to move again and this, in turn, would reduce the very benefits the project wants to achieve.
“You can’t expect all the people to relocate their entire life and families at that moment in time,” she says. “It will probably mean we will behind for a fair few years.”