The campus is located on reclaimed land on the bank of the Shing Mun River, next to the Sha Tin Racecourse.

[2] A 41-acre site beside the new Sha Tin Racecourse was chosen and construction was financed jointly by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club and the government, with additional support from the Queen's Silver Jubilee Fund.

By 1986, the Jockey Club sought to make the Jubilee Sports Centre and Ocean Park independent entities, reportedly on the advice of the government to focus on racing activities following doping and fixing scandals and on the club's own policy to "leave the management responsibilities to an independent body once the club-financed projects can stand firm on their feet".

[7] Secretary for Home Affairs Peter Tsao moved a name change bill in the Legislative Council in February 1991 to "reflect more accurately its role in promoting sport".

In order to make way for the Olympic Games, the sports institute temporarily relocated to the YMCA Wu Kai Sha Youth Village in January 2007 and the Hong Kong Jockey Club took over the site to prepare it for competition.

[9] In the 2006-2007 edition of the policy address, the Chief Executive announced a major redevelopment of the HKSI "to provide world-class training facilities to elite athletes in Hong Kong".

In its place a nine-storey Main Building was erected to house offices, hostels for local and visiting athletes, a canteen, conference and lecture rooms, a 400-seat auditorium, and related ancillary facilities.

[15] In August 2021, the government announced that it would apply for HK$990 million in funds to speed up construction of a new facility at HKSI.

[16] The government also announced that it would spend HK$150 million as a "booster fund" for HKSI's sports science and medical support.

[21][22] Chung Pak-kwong, professor at Baptist University and former chief executive of HKSI, has said that though Hong Kong at the 2020 Summer Olympics won 6 medals, it took longer than expected to get those medals, as Hong Kong had invested 40 years and billions of HKD, mostly into developing tier A sports.

[15] Chris Perry, head rowing coach at HKSI, said that youth needed to be funded, or else it would be too late to develop them into medal-winning athletes.

[26] SCMP published an article, which stated that "But the HK$7.4 billion (US$945 million) that the government says has been spent in the past decade on the development of sportsmen and women needs to be accounted for, and in gymnastics, athletics and elsewhere, it is time to ask some hard questions.

"[31] The institute is linked to Fo Tan station on the East Rail line via a footbridge spanning the Tai Po Road.