The Academy has worked in Bahrain since 1977, when it partnered with the Bahrain General Organization for Youth and Sports to develop a physical fitness test for school-aged children in that country. Since then, the institution has conducted numerous programs there focusing on physical education in schools, fitness, recreation, youth sports, the Bahrain National Olympic Committee, and fitness programs for police officers, among others.

In 2018, the Academy continued its longstanding relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain by teaching in a national program to help coaches there develop better skills in working with athletes with adaptive needs. The certificate program in disabled and adaptive sport was delivered for the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities (BSFD). The program offers a unique course of advanced study for coaches who have experience or want to have experience working with athletes with varying degrees of adaptive needs. The program has a two-pronged approach that includes working with competitive athletes and developing inclusive programs for recreational athletes.

The program is notable because it marked the return of the Academy to Bahrain after a hiatus of several years. The Academy’s involvement in Bahrain goes back more than 40 years to the beginnings of the Academy’s international instruction, research and outreach programs.   In 1977, the Academy worked with the Bahrain General Organization for Youth and Sports to develop a physical fitness test used to gauge the fitness of every school-aged child in that country, providing the first profile of youth fitness in Bahrain.  A descendant of that test is still used today. For three years after, the Academy had full charge conduct of Bahrain’s national sports effort including sports medicine and human performance research laboratory.