Ever wondered who’s behind the scenes supporting our athletes to peak for the biggest races of their lives? This week we get a back-office perspective of high performance sport with sports scientist Avish Sharma. 

Avish dials in from an altitude training camp in St Moritz, Switzerland where he’s been supporting our Australian athletes in their preparations for Paris. We talk about how hills, heat and altitude help optimise performance, but also the soft skills required for creating a positive training environment. In other words, it’s all about a holistic approach. As an example, Jess Hull has spoken about numerous factors that have led to her breaking the 2000m World Record (5:19.70) and becoming 5th fastest woman of all-time over 1500m (3:50.83).

Avish Sharma is a Performance Scientist (Physiology) at the Victorian Institute of Sport in Australia, working in the Athletics program. Prior to this, he was physiology and research lead at Triathlon Australia (2018 to 2021). He completed his PhD in altitude training (training prescription and periodisation at altitude in elite runners) at the Australian Institute of Sport and University of Canberra, whilst also supporting the Athletics and Swimming programs based there. His interests include endurance physiology (particularly optimising training prescription), holistic success factors for world class athletes, developmental pathways for sport scientists, being a mediocre surfer, and eating noodles.