Sports science is a multidisciplinary field dedicated to understanding how the healthy human body performs during exercise and how physical activity promotes health and peak performance, integrating areas such as physiology, psychology, and biomechanics. Its origins date back to Ancient Greece, notably with physician Galen (131–201 AD) who wrote extensively on nutrition and fitness, while the Renaissance further advanced anatomical and physiological knowledge through new theories and the widespread availability of printed works from the 15th century.

The discipline gained formal recognition in the 19th century with the establishment of early medical schools, such as Harvard in 1782, and the creation of specialized academic departments; significantly, George Wells Fitz pioneered the first departmental major in Anatomy, Physiology, and Physical Training at Harvard University in 1891. Major scientific contributions include August Krogh's 1920 Nobel Prize-winning work on capillary blood flow in muscles, alongside a surge in dedicated medical journal publications. Today, with an ever-increasing focus on optimizing athletic results, sports scientists and performance consultants are in high demand, leading to a growth in university research and higher education degrees in the field.