Doctor Honoris Causa
of the Józef Piłsudski Academy
of Physical Education in Warsaw
2003
Professor Władimir Nikołajewicz Płatonow
Professor Platonov was born in Kiev, on 28th July, 1941. He graduated in 1962 from the State Institute of Physical Culture in Kiev. He made postgraduate studies (1965 – 1968) and in 1968 was appointed as lecturer at the Department of Swimming of that institute and was active in a research laboratory (1969 – 1975). Next, he was appointed head of the Chair of Swimming (1975 – 1977) and in 1977 he was elected vice-rector for research and, simultaneously, appointed head of the Chair of Sport Theory. In 1979 he was granted his D.Sc. degree and in 1980 he became full professor. Since 1986 Professor Platonov heads the Chair of Olympic Sports and is the rector of the institute (now: Ukrainian National University of Physical Education and Sports). In 1992 he became full member of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He was elected president of the Association of Higher Schools of Physical Education in Central Europe and Central Asia. Professor Platonov has been deeply engaged in sports. He used to be a waterball athlete, then academic lecturer and a coach at the same time. He acts as a scientific advisor for the Ukrainian Olympic Team and a vice-president of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee. Professor Platonov is an author of over 300 published papers, including 30 monographs and textbooks widely translated into many languages, also Polish. The most widely known ones are: “Olympic Sports” in two volumes (1994 and 1997) and “General Theory of training Olympic Athletes” (1997). He initiated in 1993 scientific congresses “Science in Olympic Sports” which are continued, and in 1994 founded an editorial house “Olympic Literature”. Professor Platonov is an authority, renowned worldwide, on physical culture sciences and a founder of an original training theory school. Being a friend of Poland and Poles, he initiated in 1986 scientific collaboration of Departments of sport theory in Kiev and Warsaw, which resulted in signing in 1988 a collaborative agreement between our schools. He visited our Academy many times, delivering a course of lectures, participating in congresses and conferences organised in Poland by all Academies of Physical Education or by sports administration.
