National Performance Support Systems

The National Performance Support Systems team works to create a united, collaborative network of world-class Performance Support practitioners and teams across the HP system and enhance Performance Support's contribution to podium success.

Key strategic areas of focus are:

Connected networks

Cultivating a united, collaborative HP Performance Support system

Best practice

Promoting continual improvement, world-leading knowledge and practice

People development

Developing high performing people who contribute to podium success

The National Performance Support Systems team work to these key strategic focus areas via:

• The National Performance Support Network Leads
• National projects and initiatives that address key needs and challenges across HP sport
• Workforce development support, programs and resources
• System strategy and process development and support

The team also drives initiatives that have a basis in Sports Science and Sports Medicine, such as the Female Performance & Health Initiative and the Disordered Eating project, among others.

National Network Leads

Biomechanics

Andrew Lyttle

Andrew Lyttle has been Lead Sports Biomechanist at the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) for 19 years and has worked across many of the institute-based sports, most notably in Athletics and Swimming.

Andrew completed his PhD in Sports Biomechanics at The University of Western Australia in 1999, and in addition to a range of leadership roles within Australian sport he has co-created and implemented research and technological innovation projects.

More recently Andrew has been involved in the initial stages of a tech start-up, working as a data analyst, and lecturing in Sport and Fitness at TAFE. Andrew is based in Perth.

More information: Performance Support - Biomechanics

Performance Nutrition

Gary Slater

Gary is an advanced accredited sports dietitian who has been working in elite sport since 1996.

Gary is the current coordinator of a Master’s Degree in Sports Nutrition at the University of the Sunshine Coast where he is based. Gary was the Head of Performance Nutrition for the Australian Olympic Team in Tokyo and was the National Performance Nutrition Coordinator for Rugby Australia for several years. He has previously had roles at the AIS, Sport Singapore, and with numerous other Australian sporting organisations and codes. Gary provided nutrition and recovery services to the 2008 and 2012 Australian Paralympic Teams.

More information:Performance Support - Performance Nutrition

Sports Medicine

David Hughes

Dr David Hughes is the current AIS Chief Medical Officer and is a fellow and former President and Chair of Training of the Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians.

David has extensive experience as team physician in Basketball, Rugby, and Football. David was the Medical Director of the Australian Olympic Team for both the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

David is based in Canberra.

More information:Performance Support - Sports Medicine

Performance Psychology

Kristine Dun

Kristine is a performance psychologist with considerable experience in Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth sports. Kris has worked in the Australian and UK High Performance Sport Systems and joins us from the ACT Academy of Sport where she has worked as a Sport Psychologist for five years.

Kris has a Doctorate in Sport and Exercise Psychology and is an approved supervisor. Kris has a passion for sport and “will give most things a go”.

Kris is based in Canberra.

More information:Performance Support - Performance Psychology

Physical Therapies

Paula Peralta

Paula is a Specialist Sports & Exercise Physiotherapist, a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists (FACP) who joins our team from the NSW Institute of Sport. She has worked within the National Institute Network and across multiple National Sporting Organisations in both able-bodied and para-sport.

Paula is the Lead Physio for the Australian Opals and the Physical Therapies Lead for Paralympics Australia. She has worked with the Australian Boomers, the Australian Diamonds and with the Australian team at multiple Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games. She is a member of the Female Performance and Health Initiative (FPHI) Industry Reference Group.

Paula is based in Sydney.

More information:Performance Support - Physical Therapies

Physiology

Rodney Siegel

Rodney currently has dual roles as the National Physiology Network Lead through the Australian Institute of Sport and the Performance Science Manager at the Victorian Institute of Sport.

Rodney has more than 12 years of experience in High Performance Sport spanning three Olympic cycles and two HP Sport Systems (Australia & New Zealand). He has worked with a range of individual and team sports as a Performance Physiologist and Sport Scientist, across Summer and Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games.

Rod is based in Melbourne.

More information:Performance Support -  Physiology

Strength & Conditioning

Kieran Young

Kieran Young joins the ASC from his previous role as performance support manager at Paddle Australia where he led the performance support team across sprint, slalom and paracanoe. Prior to this, he has worked with elite tactical organisations and was the head of strength & conditioning at the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific.

Kieran holds a Masters of Science and is a Master Coach with the ASCA. Kieran is based on the Gold Coast.

More information: Performance Support - Strength & Conditioning

Wellbeing & Engagement

Bianca Fermi

Bianca is a mental health clinician with extensive experience working in wellbeing in high performance environments, including both Olympic and Paralympic sport and the Financial Services sector.

Bianca has experience in one-to-one counselling and coaching as well as group delivery providing mental health, wellbeing, and career support. Her roles have included the Performance Lifestyle Advisor at the English Institute of Sport and the British Sailing Team.

Bianca has previously been the Athlete Wellbeing & Engagement Manager for Rowing Australia.

Skill Acquisition

Michael Maloney

Michael is a skill acquisition specialist who has worked within the National Institute Network as a practitioner and researcher since 2012. He has a PhD in skill acquisition in sport, with a focus on practice methods for skill retention and transfer.

Michael has had industry appointments as a skill acquisition specialist at the South Australian Sports Institute and the Australian Institute of Sport where he was responsible for the support of coaches seeking to develop the skills of their athletes. He has a joint appointment between the AIS and the University of Canberra as a lecturer of skill acquisition.

Michael is based in Canberra.

More information:Performance Support - Skill Acquisition

Performance Analysis

Alison Alcock

Alison is an accomplished sport scientist and high performance manager, with extensive experience across a range of summer, winter and professional sports in both the Australian and UK high performance systems. Most recently Alison has worked as the Performance Support Manager for Equestrian Australia and continues in this role.

Alison first joined the AIS in 2004 as a Postgraduate Scholar, delivering performance analysis and biomechanics support across a number of AIS programs and completing her PhD in 2010 in elite women’s football. She has worked at Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games, and led a Research Team on behalf of the International Paralympic Committee to collect data on para-swimmers that informed the classification system. Alison has 25 publications, has supervised and mentored PhD students, and is an Adjunct Lecturer at Southern Cross University.

More information:Performance  Support -  Performance Analysis

Paralympic Personal Carer

Kate Mcintosh

Kate has 12 years of experience in high-performance sport, including a role with Athletics Australia and as a Senior Grade 3 Occupational Therapist where she had the opportunity to work with AA and other stakeholders in high-performance sport to establish protocols for personal care and athlete support.

Additionally as a OT clinical supervisor and leader, she has identified gaps in service delivery and staff skillsets, developing innovative training programs to address these needs. For example, introducing both the Graduate Program and Early Career Pathway streams for OTs within her private practice to foster early career development, mentorship, and supervision.

Over the past decade, her roles have helped shape and advocate for capacity building and social-emotional support among athletes, particularly in high-stress environments like international competitions. Her recognition of support development needs and creation of tailored solutions will assist the translation into addressing capability gaps within the national para personal care system.

Paralympic Personal Carer

Rachel Gale

Rachel has over nine years of experience in the Australian High-Performance Sports System. Most recently Rachel was a consultant, project manager and the lead author of: “Addressing barriers to entry and progression for Para athletes in HP pathways”, a Priority HP2032+ Horizon one project.  Rachel has a diverse range of experience including holding the role of Performance Support Development Advisor with the AIS, responsible for redesigning, delivering and evaluating the AIS Practitioner Development Program, as well as supporting the delivery of the AIS Accelerate and Elevate Coach Programs. Rachel holds a Masters of Health (Research) and teaches into Charles Sturt University’s Human Exercise Physiology course as a sessional academic. Rachel is based in Albury, NSW.

Initiative Leads

Female Performance and Health Initiative

Dr Rachel Harris

Dr Rachel Harris is the FPHI Project Lead and has been in the role since the initiative began in October 2019. Rachel is a Sport and Exercise Medicine Physician, graduating from the University of Western Australia in 2008. She was previously the Chief Medical Officer for Paralympics Australia.

Not only does Rachel bring more than a decade of experience as a physician, but she also has the lived experience of an elite athlete having represented Australia as a swimmer at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and winning gold in the 800m freestyle at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Female Performance and Health Initiative Research

Clare Minahan

Clare Minahan is an Associate Professor at Griffith University and has a special interest in elite female athletes, and women in sport. She has led the Griffith Sports Science group since 2002. Prior to that she worked as a Sports Scientist at the Queensland Academy of Sport for four years.

Clare has a PhD in Philosophy and brings a wealth of knowledge having published more than 85 peer-reviewed scientific articles. Clare was instrumental in establishing the strategic direction of the FPHI and setting and implementing the research agenda. She is currently supervising numerous post-graduate students embedded in Australian high performance sport organisations.

Disordered Eating

Nikki Jeacocke

Nikki is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, Fellow of Sports Dietitian Australia and Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician with 20 years' experience working in clinical, community and elite athlete contexts.

She currently works at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) as the Senior Sports Dietitian and Disordered Eating Project Lead. Nikki is highly experienced initiating and implementing nutrition systems for elite sporting teams and individual athletes to maximise performance and health outcomes in both Olympic and professional sports.

She has specialist expertise working with athletes in the early identification, prevention and management of disordered eating and eating disorders and was a key member in the development of the AIS and National Eating Disorders Collaboration Disordered Eating in High Performance Sport Position Statement.

As the AIS Disordered Eating Project Lead, Nikki's ongoing work includes leading the AIS contribution to the design, development, implementation and evaluation of a range of disordered eating resources including organisational guidelines and policies, and web-based resources and workshops for coaches, performance support staff and athletes.

Female Performance & Health

The AIS Female Performance & Health Initiative (FPHI) was established in October 2019, to improve female athlete specific knowledge and systems of support.

The initiative will benefit Australian athletes, coaches, parents, sporting organisations and support staff in the sport sector and will raise awareness and understanding to key female athlete performance and health considerations.

For more information and access to Female Performance & Health resources, visit Female Performance & Health Initiative.

Disordered Eating

Disordered eating can occur in any athlete, in any sport, at any time, crossing boundaries of gender, age, body size, culture, socio-economic background, athletic calibre and ability.

To support the early identification and prevention of disordered eating in athletes within the high performance sporting system, the AIS has partnered with the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) to produce a various resources and provide support to Sports and NIN partners help to address this serious but often misunderstood area.

More information can be found at Disordered eating in high performance sport.