The Department of Physical Education carries out educational, training, health-improving, educational and sports work with university students.
The Department Head is Vyacheslav Starshinov – two-time Olympic champion, nine-time World champion, eight-time European champion, honored master of sports, candidate of pedagogical sciences, professor, academician of the International Academy of Creativity.
MEPhI students with good physical and sports training can choose to become a member of more than 20 sports sections, including: sambo, basketball, volleyball, arm wrestling, rugby, hockey, fitness aerobics, sports gymnastics, chess, swimming, kettlebell lifting, table tennis, badminton, hand-to-hand fighting, mountaineering and rock climbing, orienteering and sports tourism, cyclic sports, football. The other students have general physical education. MEPhI sport infrastructure comprises a game room, a gymnasium, two sambo halls, a table tennis hall, two outdoor sports grounds with artificial grass turf, a gym and open planar facilities.
One of the strongest sports at MEPhI is sambo. The university has a rich history of sambo development. Among the founders and graduates of the MEPhI sambo section there are a large number of Moscow champions and champions of the Soviet Union. Since 1976, the University has been holding an annual international sambo tournament for the Conquerors of Space prize. The tournament is recognized as one of the best in the country, gathers a huge number of participants of the highest rank, and is very popular.
At present, MEPhI is a pivotal university for sambo development in Moscow and Russia. More than 600 students, as well as graduate students and staff members are engaged in sambo activities, the university's sambists regularly achieve high results at Moscow and All-Russian competitions.
The history of the MEPhI basketball section goes back over 60 years. The university basketball team regularly competes in the Moscow Student Games.
One of the youngest sports that quickly gained popularity all over the world and in MEPhI in particular is fitness aerobics. This is a massive, aesthetically exciting and truly spectacular team sport that brings together all the best from the theory and practice of health and sports aerobics. Students involved in this sport section are permanent prize-winners of Moscow and All-Russian competitions, participants in the European and World Championships in aerobics and step aerobics. In 2018, the team won silver medals in the Russian Cup (dance hip-hop direction).
MEPhI trail orienteering team is the strongest team among Moscow students, winners and prize-winners of the Moscow Student Games. Since 2008, MEPhI Trail Orienteering Section (http://o-mephi.net/) has been the organizer of the annual Orienteering Tournament in memory of A.S. Goryunov. Competitions are held at a high level, athletes from the leading sections of Moscow and the Moscow region have participated in them.
The Hockey team MEPhI was organized in 2011 and is playing in the Moscow Student Hockey League (MSHL). The team became the champion of the «small» cup of students of Moscow and the players of the team have a lot of personal awards (https://vk.com/reactorclub).
Another strong sport section at MEPhI is a rugby club (http://www.rugby-mephi.msk.ru/). The men's team of the university regularly takes prizes in the student championship of Moscow, performing in rugby-15 and rugby-7. The MEPhI women's rugby team also maintains a decent level of sportsmanship, achieving good results in competitions. The university annually holds the Moscow student rugby tournament in memory of the first MEPhI rector V.G. Kirillov-Ugryumov. This tournament makes a significant contribution to the development of student rugby.
Every year MEPhI athletes achieve significant results and show a good level of training in the Moscow Student Games in more than 40 sports. The constant achievements in sports contributes to student motivation to study and master professional skills, abilities and qualities.
Summer training camps held by the University in the sports and recreation camp "Volga" play an important role in popularization of a healthy lifestyle among MEPhI students (https://volga.mephi.ru/). The camp is located in an ecologically clean area of the Tver region on the picturesque bank of the Vidogoschinsky Bay of the Volga River and has everything for active recreation and sports. During summer time, MEPhI sport teams of volleyball, football, rugby, sambo, basketball, badminton, athletics, etc. come to the camp and train.
Since 2012, MEPhI has been organizing the University Olympics of regional divisions at the sports and recreation camp “Volga”. Students from Obninsk, Volgodonsk, Balakovo, Dimitrovgrad, Sarov, Snezhinsk, Lesnoy, Trekhgorny, Seversk and Moscow take part in the sports festival. The large-scale event promotes the popularization of sports, improving the sports skills and strengthening friendly sports ties between regional divisions.
