History of the Institute of Sports Medicine

Sports medicine draws upon the knowledge of antique medicine of the close relationship between exercise and health, reflected namely in the work of the Greek physician Galen (129-199 a. c.).  Modern development of sports medicine began in the second half of the 19^th century. In the Czech lands, the development of sports medicine was connected with the name of the world-known physiologist J. E. Purkyně. 

In 1948, the Institute of Sports Medicine was founded at Charles University as the very first academic institute of sports medicine in the world by Prof. J. A. Král, M.D., Doctor Scientiarum, who was an outstanding internist and cardiologist. He also authored the first book about sports medicine in the world entitled "The Clinics of Sports Medicine"(1956). For many years, Prof. Král was the General Secretary of the International Sports Medicine Association. The First European Congress of Sports Medicine took place in Prague in 1965.

Since 1948 scientific investigation of the Institute has concentrated on the physiology of physical exercise (Kruta, V., Seliger, V.), the development of simple methods for testing physical fitness and performance  (Novotný, V. V., Seliger, V., Chrástek, J.), the investigation of the sports accident rate (Hornof, Z., Schmied, L.), preventive cardiology (Horák, J., Chrástek, J.), medical functional anthropology (Novotný, V. V.) and fitness reference values of the Czech population (Seliger, V., Novotný, V. V., Horák, J.).

In recent years, scientific activities of the Institute have been focused namely on the prescription of exercise in primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (Baráčková, M., Boudová, L., Brandejský, P., Haluzíková, D.) and auxiliary exercise therapy of diabetes mellitus, obesity, arterial hypertension and of other symptoms of the metabolic syndrome X (Matoulek, M., Vilikus, Z.) as well as multiple sclerosis (Brandejský, P.). Special software applications dealing with many branches of sports medicine were developed in the Institute (Vilikus, Z.).