Milestone moments mark a busy November at the AIS

From international competitions to world-class conferences, there’s been plenty of highlights at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) across November.  

The month began with athletes and support crews from around the world converging in Canberra for the 2025 World Boccia Challenger, Australia’s first international boccia event in over a decade. 

The event not only shone a spotlight on one of the most inclusive Para-sports, but also saw the Aussie team excel on home soil. 

Paralympians Jamieson Leeson and Daniel Michel, alongside ramp operators Jasmine Haydon and Ashlee Maddern, claimed gold in the BC3 Individual and Pairs events, while Aaryan Shah secured silver in the BC2 Male Individual. 

Across November, more than 350 athletes and teams took part in 11 high performance camps for nine sports.  

Among them was Australia’s Women’s Water Polo team, who spent two weeks in a research camp led by the AIS Female Performance and Health Initiative. 

The study focused on energy availability and sought to determine whether the athletes are consuming enough energy (calories) to meet the demands of training, competition, and daily life.

By tracking food intake, training loads, sleep and recovery, menstrual cycles and heart rates, researchers aim to help the squad better fuel for performance, which Aussie Stinger Genevieve Longman believes could shape success for years to come. 

“At the top level, the one per cent really matters,” she said.  

“If we can get an edge from what comes out of this research, that’s really great, and it’s going to set us up on a really great path towards LA 2028.”  

November also brought Australia’s high performance sector together beyond the field, with almost 400 representatives from more than 70 sports and organisations gathering at the AIS for the 2025 World Class to World Best (WC2WB) conference.  

Presentations and panels featured athletes, coaches, performance staff, system leaders, and influential voices from inside and outside sport, all sharing insights aligned with the Win Well Strategy values of excellence, belonging, connection, and courage. 

In addition, this week the campus hosted the 2025 Australian Olympic Change-Maker National Summit, organised by the Australian Olympic Committee. The initiative brought 25 student leaders to Canberra for two days of workshops and problem-solving alongside Olympians Noemie Fox, Emma Jeffcoat, Brodie Summers, Conor Nicholas and Nathan Katz.

Heading into summer, the campus is gearing up to host camps for swimming, gymnastics, Para-rowing, Para-tennis, as well as welcome Football Australia’s Young Matildas.   

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