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The nearly $90 million South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) has launched as one of the best high-performance sports precincts in Australia with operations commencing next week.

The building will also be home to the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing, which was instrumental in the design and building process, working alongside COX Architecture and Hansen Yuncken.

Its Mile End location, on the doorstep of Adelaide’s CBD, is co-located with the pioneering National Centre for Sports Aerodynamics, upgraded SA Athletics Stadium, and the SA Netball Centre.

The state-of-the-art Mile End facility has been designed to give South Australian and SA-based athletes a competitive edge, featuring nation-leading spaces including:

• Strength and conditioning gym, fit with five lane synthetic turf testing space (three lanes are 60 metres and two lanes are 40 metres) and anti-gravity treadmill.
• Environmental chamber for athlete testing under a range of temperature, hypoxic and humidity conditions.
• Full sized indoor sprung timber court and half court movement studio, designed for instant performance analysis under individual and team modes.
• Ergometer training space, home to the SASI rowing and canoe/kayak programs.
• Physiology laboratory and athlete health rooms, fit out for our allied health partners.
• Athlete recovery centre, complete with athlete nutrition zone.
• Biomechanics and exercise physiology laboratories fit for our allied health partners and for students to learn about the role that forces play in movement and physiological responses to exercise and training.

The SA Government has invested $68 million towards the development, which provides a world-class sport, research and education hub to high performance athletes, coaches and university students.

Project partner UniSA has contributed a further $20 million for capital costs, which will see the UniSA Sports Science Hub open on the second floor in the coming months, with high performance sport science laboratories and teaching spaces for students undertaking a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

SASI Director Keren Faulkner shared “SASI’s new home in Mile End is something I am extremely proud of where we will help athletes develop into the best version of themselves, both in their sporting pursuits and in their everyday lives.

“As an organisation that is at the heart of South Australia’s sporting success, I’m thrilled that this space has been designed to be inclusive and support every type of elite athlete.

“It will also enable our coaches and staff to power greatness in their work where we’ve always had a world class team and now, we have the facilities to match this - the sky’s the limit in terms of what we can achieve.

“Our partnership with UniSA will also give us great opportunities to promote the way research, science and academia can work together with sport.

UniSA Professor Jon Buckley, Executive Dean: UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance Academic Unit added “UniSA is very pleased to partner with the State Government and South Australian Sports Institute in this world-class development.

“The collaboration draws upon the expertise of SASI and UniSA to dually advance the preparation of high-performance athletes and educate the elite sports workforce of the future.”

The Mile End sports precinct is set to be a drawcard for international sports teams with world-renowned organisations having already expressed their interest in basing themselves in Adelaide to use these amenities.

A SASI open day event will be held early next year where members of the public will be invited to come along and take a tour of the new facility.

Image top. Rhiannon Pearce, Assistant Minister for Junior Sport Participation; Prof Jon Buckley, Executive Dean of UniSA's Allied Health and Human Performance; and Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing Katrine Hildyard with SASI athletes at the pre-launch of the new sporting facilities in Mile End; Image below. UniSA Prof Jon Buckley and SASI athlete and weightlifter Callum Thomas. Credit: UNiSA

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