During the late 1970s Australian sport was in trouble. A miserable showing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics — where the Aussies didn’t bag a single gold medal — saw the confidence of our athletes shaken and public support for sport hit a low.

A game changer was needed — but when it came it wasn’t a sportsperson leading the charge. It was a politician, and a legal specialist at that.

Bob Ellicott was appointed minister for home affairs and minister for Capital Territory in the Fraser government in 1977, after an earlier stint as attorney-general. It was a year into his new roles that he received a special request.

“The prime minister came to me one day and he said ‘I want you to do something about sport’” he told an audience during a recent visit to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. “Well, I of course said yes. But he didn’t tell me to set up an institute or anything like that.”

Ellicott was left to wade through various options and come up with a solution before the 1980 election, which it was widely predicted the government would lose. He was attracted to the concept of an institute as a central place for people to pursue excellence and foster heroes — who he believed from a young age were the very essence of sport.

“The ‘30s was a period of heroes, and I guess my involvement in sport comes from that sort of background. Heroes and heroines to me was what sport was about.”

But while institutes had been proposed previously, it wasn’t until Ellicott travelled to China and saw a PE institute — where athletes could live, train and study — that he decided on the form an Australian version should take.

“Seeing that, it suddenly all fell into place. This is the art of the possible. I immediately saw that as the goal. It was going to be a place where our athletes who were pursuing excellence could come for the best coaches and best facilities, but they should also be able to pursue some qualification for life after sport. And it should all be in one place.”

And that place would be Canberra. With a limited budget and time ticking, Ellicott used his power as the minister for Capital Territory to secure land in the suburb of Bruce and set the institute in motion.

“I don’t think I would have been able to achieve what was achieved in the time and for the money available.”

“I didn’t have any difficulty in putting it here, nor do I think it’s all that difficult to say to athletes all over Australia that if you want to pursue excellence, you can pursue it here. It’s our national capital, and it’s the place where national institutions ought to be.”

The AIS was opened on Australia Day in 1981 by Malcolm Fraser, whose government survived the October 1980 election. With famed swim coach Don Talbot at the helm, eight sports were initially offered — from the widely expected swimming and athletics to the then-unusual choices of weightlifting and netball.

The AIS has proven to be a fertile ground for Australia’s sporting heroes, but despite being emulated by states nationwide Ellicott believes it remains the country’s sporting home.

“I did not have in my mind that it wouldn’t expand elsewhere. I thought it might spawn state institutes, for instance.

“But if you have a beating heart which is in the national capital it emanates and it influences. And I think I can say that’s what happened. Having it here was to me a natural — and continuing it here is a natural. It needs to be continued.”

The AIS is holding an open day on Sunday 28 April where visitors can delve deeper than ever before into the lives of Australia’s high performance athletes.