Our Story
The Millennium Institute of Sport & Health Story
In the 1990’s, New Zealand was falling behind the rest of the world in our ability to prepare athletes capable of winning on the world stage. Leading North Shore businessmen, Sir Graeme Avery and Sir Stephen Tindall, decided to do something about it, and with the Founding Organisations and generous supporters and donors, established the Millennium Institute of Sport & Health, which opened in 2002.
Since then, the Institute has gone from strength to strength, providing world-class facilities for the nation’s best athletes and local athletes alike, and highly valued community sport and exercise programmes.
AUT University, a national leader in exercise science and public health and nutrition, became the Institute’s Tertiary Education Partner in 2002.
The AUT Story
AUT is New Zealand’s leading health, sport and exercise science tertiary education provider.
AUT’s School of Sport and Recreation is New Zealand’s top-ranked sport science school in New Zealand and ranked in the top 50 in the world.
AUT’s Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand’s (SPRINZ) clinics, located here at AUT Millennium, gather sport science and health information from high performance athletes and the wider community.
SPRINZ’s research aims to improve the performance of elite athletes and the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders. SPRINZ has internationally renowned experts, research groups and interdisciplinary research activities in the following areas:
- Human Potential Centre
- Sports Kinesiology Injury Prevention and Performance
- Sport Leadership and Management
- Sports Physiology and Nutrition
- Sports Technology
- Strength and Conditioning
- Youth Development
The AUT Millennium Story
In 2009, with facilities and demand for services at capacity, the Millennium Institute of Sport & Health and AUT University joined forces to create AUT Millennium, governed by the AUT Millennium Ownership Trust, to take the founders’ vision to new levels.
A non-profit organisation, AUT Millennium is committed to providing a world class environment for high performance sports training, community sport, health and wellbeing and related research and education.
With funding from the NZ Government, Auckland Council, ASB Community Trust, the Lion Foundation and generous donors, AUT Millennium has added a new generation of facilities and services, including the HPSNZ National Training Centre, Human Performance Centre, Human Potential Centre, and the Sir Owen G Glenn National Aquatic Centre.
In 2017, AUT Millennium made some further changes to its corporate structure after reviewing the way in which the organisation operates and is legally structured. Previously two trusts operated together to run AUT Millennium. As a result of these changes, on 1 April 2017 the Millennium Institute of Sport and Health (MISH) Trust transferred its assets and responsibilities to the AUT Millennium Ownership Trust (AMOT).
