More than 500 members of the high performance sector were in Canberra Monday 28 October to Friday 1 November to explore a key objective in the 2032+ High Performance sport strategy; what world-leading knowledge and practice looks like for integrated, high-functioning Performance Teams.

AIS Director of National Performance Support Systems Miranda Menaspà said the event was a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas, collaborate and share solutions with other sports.

"It was great to see coaches, and performance support practitioners, including wellbeing and engagement managers, engineers, data professionals and researchers all in the same place."

“The forum heard unique insights from organisations like Swimming Australia, Surfing Australia, AusCycling and Table Tennis Australia on how performance teams can help our athletes achieve their best”.

Breakout sessions covered a range of disciplines including strength and conditioning, nutrition, physiology, psychology, physiotherapy and movement science.

Participants were able to attend the Australian Sports Commission’s (ASC) annual Sports Technology and Applied Research Symposium (STARS) which ran alongside the forum and online.

ASC Research and Innovation manager Tim Kelly said it can be challenging to stay across the latest developments in this field.

“STARS is an opportunity to connect with researchers, technologists and thought leaders in a variety of scientific and technological areas, and also hear from people from other sectors with similar challenges to solve”.

Some of the topics on the agenda included integrating heat acclimation into elite training programs, a performance-centred practice project which aims to enhance individualised training design and monitoring for athletes, and an update from the AIS Return to Play grant recipients.

“The highlight was seeing the engagement of so many people with the various presenters, and the conversations and connections made between people. The launch of a digital platform to support sport scientists to increase their data literacy was also a tangible highlight for me”, Kelly said.