With the Summer Olympics being hosted in Queensland in 2032, the innovation happening in the world of sports science in our home state and the country at large is ramping up more than ever. So here are just a few of the industry leaders changing the landscape of Australian sports sciences.
The Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Federal Government’s own body for the development of the country’s sporting professions, the AIS provides news, community engagement, workforce development, and more on top of being the peak body for research, development, and peer review of Australian sports science. Their engineering department has designed cutting-edge tools for wheelchair sports, their tech team has developed mid-competition analysis tools, and they maintain the National Quality Standards Scheme that allows Australian sports scientists to gather data that is valid, accurate, reliable, and comparable.
VALD Performance
Brisbane-based sport-tech engineers VALD Performance are world leaders in fitness analysis. Their suite of bespoke heavy-duty testing equipment allows coaches, athletes, and sports scientists to accurately analyse the strengths and weaknesses of a huge range of muscle movements, and is currently in-use by over 400 professional sports teams, universities, and governing bodies.
Strength By Numbers
Melbourne-based Strength By Numbers’ similar, but sleeker and more user-friendly performance testing equipment brings strength analysis to the people. SBN have designed a simple but comprehensive suite of tools that allow anyone, including smaller local sports clubs and physiotherapists, to see where their athletes can improve their performances.
The University of Queensland
Australia’s number one university for sports learning and research also happens to call our own state home. The University of Queensland’s Human Movement and Sports Science researchers operate across a wide range of schools and provide industry-defining insights that change the way biomedicine, health, and more are practised the world over.
Catapult
One of Australia’s biggest sports tech startup success stories, Catapult have developed a wearable athlete analytics device that incorporates GPS and inertial tracking to measure in-game performance in real time. Catapult was originally formed from a partnership between the Australian Institute of Sport and the Cooperative Research Centre to maximise the performance of Australian athletes competing in the Sydney Olympic Games, they are now a leader in global sports sciences.
We at Life Sciences Queensland are extremely proud to operate in the same field as these giants of Australian sports, and excited to see what comes next in the life sciences fields.