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Australian Institute of Sport
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a specialised educational and training institution providing coaching for elite junior and senior athletes in a number of sports, many of them Olympic sports but including a number of others.
The Institute's headquarters is sited in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The 65 hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce, but some of the institute's programs are located in other Australian cities. It is a division of the Australian Sports Commission.
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Set up in 1981 after the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games in which Australia failed to win a gold medal (regarded as a severe national embarrassment in Australia), the Institute's well-funded programs (and more generally the generous funding for elite sporting programs) are regarded as a major reason for Australia's disproportionate success in international sporting competition.
Shortly after its inception in 1981, the AIS held a competition for a symbol that would depict the AIS aim of "achieving supremacy in sport". Over 500 designs were submitted. The winner was a design student from Bendigo in Victoria, Rose-Marie Derrico. Her design shows an athlete with hands clasped above the head in recognition of victory. The colours of the logo are red and blue, which are the same colours as the Australian flag.
A brief overview of the history of the AIS follows:
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1981 | AIS officially oppened by the Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Malcolm Fraser |
| Don Talbot appointed inaugural Director of the AIS | |
| Eight founding sports were basketball, gymnastics, netball, swimming, tennis, track and field, and weight lifting | |
| 1982 | 36 current and former AIS athletes competed in three sports and won 25 of the 107 medals won by Australia at the 1982 Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane, Australia |
| 1983 | Gymnastics training hall, indorr and outdoor tennis courts, and swimming complex completed |
| 1984 | Frank Stewart Training Centre for netball, basketball, football and weightlifting completed |
| Diving program in Brisbane and hockey program in Perth established | |
| Dr John Cheffers appointed Director of the AIS | |
| 32 current and former AIS athletes competed in four sports and won seven of the 24 medals won by Australia at the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, United States | |
| AIS Athlete of the Year - Karen Phillips (swimming) |
The AIS employs over 190 staff, including 70 coaches to directly support AIS athletes. In addition to coaching staff, the AIS employs a large number of staff who work in Sports Medicine, Education and Technology, which includes disciplines such as sports nutrition, performance analysis, physiology, biomechanics, applied research, talent search, athlete career education, strength and conditioning, psychology and physical therapies.
Outside the front of the main building are a number of sculptures, such as Acrobats by John Robinson, which shows one acrobat holding another upside down one with just one hand. Also is The Basketballer, one of three works which were commissioned by AMP Limited to celebrate the 2000 Paralympic Olympic games. It was brought to the front of the AIS in June 2003.
The AIS competes in the Victorian Premier League football tournament,Women's National Basketball League, South East Australian Basketball League and the Commonwealth Bank Trophy Netball League.
The AIS offers scholarships to over 700 athletes each in year across 35 programs in 26 different sports. Scholarships are also currently offered to athletes with disabilities in athletics, swimming and skiing.
In 2004/5, the AIS offers Scholarship programmes for the following sports:
- Football (soccer) for men and women of ages under 20 years old. The men's squad plays in the Victorian Premier League football competition.
- Archery, artistic gymnastics, athletes with disabilities, basketball, boxing, netball, rowing, soccer (men), soccer (women), triathlon, swimming, athletics, men's volleyball and water polo (men) administered from Canberra
- Diving, squash, softball and cricket (men & women), administered from Brisbane
- Sprint canoeing administered from the Gold Coast
- Road cycling and track cycling administered from Adelaide
- Australian rules football, tennis and winter sports (in partnership with the Olympic Winter Institute) administered from Melbourne
- Golf administered from Mornington Peninsula (Victoria)
- Rugby union (in partnership with the Australian Rugby Institute), Athletes with a Disability (AWD) - alpine skiing, sailing and Water Polo (women) and rugby league administered from Sydney
- Hockey administered from Perth.
The AIS and the Australian Olympic Committee formed the Australian Institute of Winter Sports after the 1998 Winter Olympics. The organisation was renamed to the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia on July 1, 2001. It provides training in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing (including aerial and mogul), snowboarding, short track speed skating and figure skating. It is also a partner with the AIS in skeleton (toboganning).
- Australian Sports Commission
- Australian Cricket Academy
- Australian Institute of Sport Football (Soccer) Program
- AIS Arena
- Olympic Winter Institute of Australia: Program background and objectives
- Australian Institute of Sport Webpage
- Olympic Winter Institute of Australia web site
- AIS sports A list of AIS Sports and their locations