Biography

Peter Krustrup is Professor of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, and Honorary Visiting Professor of Sport and Health Sciences at Exeter University, United Kingdom. He is 53 years old and is a world leading expert in football science. Career citations: >33000. H-index: 89. He has authored 401 original research articles, of which 194 deals the fitness and health effects of football and other sports, and another 105 with physical-tactical-technical match analyses, fatigue, recovery, training and testing in elite football. Started his pioneering research in Football for Health back in 2003 and is now the leader of a group of 225 researchers in 22 countries and has established the international Football is Medicine platform in 2018. He has played football since the age of 5 and is hoping that he is just about halfway through his career. He has played 200 matches in the Danish 2nd and 3rd League and has been a football coach for a total of 15 years. He is UEFA Pro-license Coach and was assistant coach for the Danish Women’s National Team winning a bronze medal in the Euro 2013, and Fitness Coach for the Danish Women's National Team from 2019-2021. He is currently Fitness Coach for OB (Odense Boldklub), in the Danish Superliga.

Teaching duties and advisory roles: Advisor and Co-advisor for 34 PhD students from 2007-present, at the University of Southern Denmark as well as Copenhagen University and Exeter University. Organiser and co-organiser of 5 PhD courses.
Conference organiser: Chairman of the Football is Medicine 2019 Conference, and Co-chairman of FiM 2020. Chairman of the Organizing Commitee, WCSF2015, Copenhagen, DK. Co-organiser of the Copenhagen Consensus Conference, Physical Activity for Children and Youth, April 2016.

Main research areas: The scientific production and expertise includes basic science as well as applied science that are interlinked but can be condensed in three main categories: 1) Muscle metabolism and muscle fibre recruitment during dynamic exercise (89 articles from 2000-2024). This includes single-legged and whole-body dynamic and analyses of the kinetics and the regulation of oxidative and anaerobic metabolic and the effect of exercise intensity, warm-up, previous intense exercise, diet and drug manipulation, environmental conditions and training, 2) Human performance, fatigue, training and testing of elite athletes and the general population (100 articles from 2001-2024). This includes analysis of physiological demands and locomotor activities in training and match-play for elite athletes and the general population, fatigue, recovery, development of sport-specific testing protocols, reliability and validity of tests in relation to sports performance, effects of intense interval training for elite players, 3) Fitness and health effects of physical activity across the lifespan with special reference to team sport (194 articles from 2009-2024). This includes investigations of the link between the locomotor activities and physiological demands of various sports disciplines and other types of physical activity types, the cardio-vascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal adaptations after short- and long-term interventions, and the potential for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of life-style related diseases, such as hypertension, obesity, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis (see review, Krustrup et al. 2010). The mechanisms responsible for the fitness and health effects are investigated and the effects of team sports are compared to other training modalities, including strength training, interval running and continuous-type training such as cycling, swimming and jogging. The ongoing studies in this research area relates to children, adults and elderly, men and women with different levels of experience and skills (in many cases beginners), socio-economic background, healthy participants as well as patient groups, including hypertensive patients, type 2 diabetics and prostate and breast cancer patients and are describing the dose-response effect as well as the short and long-term effects of football and a variety of other team sports, such as basketball, team handball and unihockey.

Scientific collaborations and merits: More than 200 presentations as invited speaker/keynote speaker in 31 countries. Pioneering work related to Football for Health. Principal investigator on 9 RCT's supported by FIFA.
Editorial roles: Editor of the EJAP (muscle physiology). 2012-2019. Senior Associate Editor BJSM. 2016-2019. Guest editor for SJMSS, Football for Health Special Issues, 2010, 2014, 2018.

Awards, commitments and teaching duties: "Sports Award, Unibank", 1994, “Young Investigators Award”, ECSS, 1997. “Research Communication Award”, Faculty of Science, UoCPH, 2007. “Men’s Health Award”, 2010. “Who's Who in the World”, 2011-2016, Danish FA "CSR Award" 2014 and 2017. SDU Research Dissemination Award 2021, UEFA Grassroots Football Award 2023.