"I didn’t have an overly positive experience here just because I felt like I was a fish in a fishbowl, like I was being monitored all the time," Henry said.
"There wasn’t a lot of perspective in life, it was all about sport. It’s something that opens that up and allows the athlete to be in their normal, everyday life, and choose where they train. They have perspective and balance that’s going to make for a better athlete.
"I was a little bit of a different story because I came here after my success. I came here after Athens, which was the biggest event in my career.
"I struggled with motivation after that, so being thrown into this environment where I really wasn’t comfortable, it really didn’t help at all.
"I won the world championship the next year, and that was more just based on pure fluke. I just happened to continue alright form into the world championship in 2005.
"There is definitely great facilities here that allow you to get the best out of yourself and the technology here. They can still use this facility, they can still come here on camps and use all the technology they’ve got, but it’s not so central and it’s not so insular."
Federal Sport Minister Bridget McKenzie was reluctant to comment about plans to overhaul or downsize the 64-hectare AIS with uncertainty dragging on for more than two years.
The ACT government has been waiting for its federal counterpart to make a decision about the campus, which is set to include selling Canberra Stadium and the AIS Arena.
The AIS has been decentralising departments and spreading them around the country while the institute increases its focus on athlete wellbeing, having launched a nation-wide mental health support service for AIS-funded athletes, and cutting edge sports technology.
The move away from being a centralised hub has been met with criticism from some corners with former AIS director and marathon great Rob de Castella declaring the sporting hub is “dead” and a “sham”, however Henry is firm in her stance.
Henry is among a group of 30 Olympic gold medallists mentoring the next generation of Olympians in the lead up to the Tokyo Games next year.
The AIS teamed up with the Australian Army to launch the Gold Medal Ready program to help emerging athletes familiarise themselves with the pressures of the Olympic environment.
"One thing we have noticed with athletes is maybe that balance and perspective thing isn’t there, so when it comes to that final hurdle of actually achieving once you’re at the Games, it falls down," Henry said.
"Any stories we can tell, any of our experiences that might help an athlete to go ‘oh it’s okay, she’s been through that and she succeeded’ can help. Personally I didn’t get access to anything like that when I was swimming.
"I thought I was a bit weird because I used to throw up and get physically ill before races. Then after my career other people said ‘oh no, I did too’.
"It’s nice to be put in the situation where you can say to someone ‘if you go through the same thing as I did, it’s normal and you can still do really well’."
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