Abstract des Autors

The legimitation of sports and high performance sports can be drawn from the anthropological point of view: The basic needs of man include the drive towards exercise. In the hierarchy of human needs the ambition to reach perfection, the highest possible personal performance, takes first place. The limits of performance in sports today are not physical or mental, but rather ethical. The medical sciences in sports and high performance sports play an indispensible and positive role. They only become a negative factor and must be judged as such if they allow themselves to be used for manipulative purposes and, thus, offend ethical values. Sports, and in particular high performance sports, requires support by the medical sciences in terms of prophylaxis during training and competitions, but also with regard to therapy and regeneration. Here, theory and practice still show deficits. Verf.-Referat