The institute is based at the WAIS High Performance Service Centre and has sport programs including athletics, baseball, canoeing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, netball, rowing, sailing, softball, swimming, and water polo.

In 1996, WAIS established itself as the first state institute to have its own facility, which was based in the annex on the southern side of the Superdrome (later known as Challenge Stadium).

[1] In May 2012, the Government of Western Australia announced funding of $33.7 million for the construction of a new high performance centre for the institute.

The WAIS High Performance Service Centre was scheduled to be completed in two years and was built on the eastern side of Challenge Stadium, next to the existing clay tennis courts at the UWA Sports Park.

[3] Consequently, in May 2021, The Australian Sports Commission has officially apologised to athletes who had been "treated inappropriately at the Australian Institute of Sport following an independent review into gymnastics heard evidence of a toxic culture that contributed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse of young athletes."