Professor Dragomir Mateev
12.05.1902 - 28.12.1971
Physiologist,
Corresponding member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), President of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee,
long-time Rector of the Higher Institute for Physical Education (VIF).
Dragomir Mateev,
the founder of science in the field of physical education and sports in Bulgaria
(Presented here by Professor Ilcho Iliev,
on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the journal "Sport and Science," 1996)
The 40th anniversary of the first and still the only scientific journal in Bulgaria dedicated to the issues of physical education and sports coincides with the 25th anniversary of the death of its first editorial board chairman and editor-in-chief, Professor Doctor Dragomir Mateev, a corresponding member of BAS. This coincidence, of course, is purely accidental. However, it was no coincidence that he was honored with the responsibility of leading the establishment, initiation, and affirmation of a new scientific publication in what was at the time an insufficiently differentiated scientific field. There were sufficient reasons for this: Mateev was then the head of the Department of Physiology and Rector of the Higher Institute for Physical Education, Director of the Central Scientific Research Institute for Physical Education, Chairman of the Scientific-Methodological Council of the Supreme Committee for Physical Education and Sports, and the initiator and organizer of numerous seminars and conferences on the issues of physical education and sports and their role in improving the physical development and work capacity of the population. But Mateev was more than that: he was already a scholar of international renown and recognition, the author of numerous publications in the most prestigious scientific journals such as: Pfluger's Archiv, Zschr für die gesamte exper Med, Arbeits Phisiologie, Klinische Wochenschrift, Acta aerophysiologica, Research Quarterly Sportmedizin, Studi di medicina e chirurgia dello sport, Theorie und Praxis der Korperkultur.
He authored Bulgaria's first book on the medico-biological foundations and sports medicine aspects of physical exercise, "Scientific Foundations of Physical Education," as well as "Physical Culture and Women," "Human Physical Development," "Pavlov's Physiological Doctrine," and numerous publications in Bulgarian periodicals during 1931-1951, including in Medical Review, Medical Chronicles, School Review, Bulgarian Hygiene Review, Pediatric Review, Medical-Pedagogical Journal, and sports periodicals abroad such as Theory and Practice of Physical Culture, Theorie und Praxis der Korperkultur, Vesnik ceskych lekari, among others.
His works were cited in physiology and medical textbooks by renowned authors such as Farfel, Krestovnikov, Knoll und Arnold, Grosse-Brokoff, Burger, Nocker, and in numerous scientific publications: Kisch, Schneider, Bjurstedt, Golwitzer-Mejer, Budelmann, Asmussen, Diringshofen, Frey, Eichna, Neinmejer.
Mateev gained international fame as a scientist with his publications on orthostatic collapse in the early 1930s, which remain relevant today, not only for sports but also for "higher spheres" of science and practice, such as supersonic aviation and space medicine. Therefore, 60 years after his first publications on the subject and 25 years after his death, his name still appears in scientific journals and textbooks on the physiology and pathophysiology of extreme conditions.
The genius simplicity of the experiment, conducted by Mateev and Hr. Petrov, "armed" only with a blood pressure monitor and elastic bandages for the lower limbs, not in laboratory conditions but on a sports field, remains impressive. They conclusively explained the then-mysterious transient circulatory disorders in an upright position shortly after intensive physical exertion in young, healthy athletes. These findings later contributed to the design of specialized clothing for supersonic airplane crews in military aviation and even more complex attire for astronauts to withstand the extreme gravitational overloads they professionally face.
Today, every student at the National Sports Academy knows about orthostatic collapse or gravitational shock according to Mateev. The experiment with the bandages has long been a standard demonstration in physiology practice, and everything seems simple and clear. However, in the 1930s, when sports physiology was in its infancy, aviation medicine was still finding its footing, and space medicine was yet to be conceived, the experiment of Mateev and Petrov laid the foundation for the modern concept of circulatory system behavior under gravitational stress and the modulatory role of physical exercise and sports training in the organism's adaptation to these conditions.
Regardless of his brilliant start in science, circumstances led Mateev to work not in a scientific institute but in the Ministry of Education as an inspector-physician from 1931-1943 and earlier as a school physician in the First Boys’ High School in Sofia. From this period dates his interest in age-related morphology and physiology and school-age health problems, reflected in several publications in medical and pedagogical journals of that time and later.
A logical continuation of his research on age-related changes and the effects of physical exercises on the structure and functions of the organism were numerous publications on aging issues conducted under his initiative and leadership at the Center for Gerontology and the Institute of Physiology at BAS, which he directed during his final years.
Mateev deeply believed in the possibilities of influencing the natural aging processes and the involution of essential life functions through an appropriate system of physical exercises, ensuring health and quality of life into advanced old age. He supported this belief with many publications on experimental research results on humans and laboratory animals, demonstrating the positive effects of physical exercises even in age periods considered to have limited adaptive capacity.
Viewing the organism as an integrated system existing through numerous feedback mechanisms enabling its adaptive behavior, Mateev bridged physiology and sports psychology. Publications resulting from this collaboration addressed central and peripheral movement control mechanisms, fatigue in the neuromuscular apparatus, and interactions between central nervous and peripheral factors.
In addition to about 200 scientific publications, monographs, and textbooks, Mateev authored an equal number of scientific-popular articles and journalistic materials on related topics. Many others likely benefited from his mentorship, from research conceptualization to publication.
The interested reader can find more details in the book by Prof. Kr. Krustev and Prof. N. Petrova, titled simply "Dragomir Mateev," published in the "Sport and Personality" series in 1986.
Mateev was remembered not just as a scholar but as an enthusiastic researcher with the unique ability to inspire a passion for experimental work and respect for science in those around him.
Prof. Ilcho Iliev, February 1996
|