It's appropriate that sport-loving Australians should celebrate the Australian Institute of Sport's 30th birthday on Australia Day. And AIS director Peter Fricker says the birthday is ''timely''. ''You get a sense that there's maturity about the AIS,'' he said.

''It has really established a pretty good platform of being a national centre of excellence.

''But now it's poised to get on to the next phase of our history, which is to underpin national success probably a focus we've never had before, because we've been about AIS scholarship-holders only.'' A return of one silver and four bronze medals at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games was seen as unacceptable and it sparked the birth of the AIS as a proud sporting nation looked to re-establish itself as a world power.

Professor Fricker started as the institute part-time part-time because it was not believed the AIS would need a staff on a permanent basis. For the 152 athletes, there were just 12 support staff, including the coaches.

Initially there were only eight sports basketball, gymnastics, netball, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field and weightlifting.

How times have changed since it was officially opened in 1981 by then prime minister Malcolm Fraser, with swimming coach Don Talbot the first director. Nowadays 1192 athletes go through its doors, taking part in 35 disciplines. There are 359 times more support staff 120 coaches, 204 administrative staff and 119 sports scientists.

Professor Fricker said there was a real sense of adventure, and it was the excitement of it all that helped lure Bruce Mason away from his safe lecturing job at the University of Wollongong.

An aquatics biomechanist, Dr Mason is now head of the aquatic testing, training and research unit. Friends and colleagues had warned Dr Mason against joining the AIS, as its future was unknown and there was the distinct possibility it could fold within six months.

But Dr Mason was drawn by the positive nature of working with elite athletes. Everyone at the AIS wanted to succeed and were there to do the best they could.

''They were very interesting days because we just had general equipment and you changed from one day to another.

''You'd cover all sports and that was interesting, because you had track and field one day and the next weekend you were at a swim meet, then you were at a rowing regatta.

''The information we gave was pretty superficial.'' Modern technology has changed the way he works. The new high-tech pool can provide analysis of turns and starts to the swimmers within minutes.

In the days when Olympic gold medallist swimmer Petria Thomas was there, between 1993 and 2004, it would take two or three hours for results to be known.

David Polkinghorne
Canberra Times