Objective of the study. Biomechanics in the meaning formulated by the movement theorists N.A. Bernstein, G.A. Kogan, V.K. Balsevich, L.V. Chkhaidze, V.M. Zatsiorsky and D.D. Donskoy is designed to study the mechanisms, missions and values of a healthy motor activity with its disease prevention aspects - to lay an analytical basis for progress in sports and healthy lifestyles. The sports biomechanics discipline coming to its birth centenary should undoubtedly be protected for its great service and benefits for humanity, and this is the core idea of our article. Results and conclusion. As things now stand, it is very likely that Biomechanics PhD dissertations will not be defended anymore since 2021 - that may be interpreted as indicative of the interest in the discipline being lost by the Russian research community. It is necessary to understand the true reasons for the collapse of the academic biomechanics discipline on the verge of its birth centenary, otherwise our sports research may be stalled due to the need for a human movement theory to facilitate competitive progress in many sports disciplines, particularly the most difficult ones - including e.g. figure skating, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics with their unprecedentedly beautiful and complex elements and movement culture on the whole. This movement culture is akin to ballet in terms of the movement expression and artistic merits - that have always been of special interest for the Russian biomechanics researchers working in collaboration with the leading choreographers and athletes in the above-mentioned and other projects by the Research Institute of Physical Education. The article analyzes the progress history of academic biomechanics discipline on the eve of its birth centenary to ac-knowledge, among other things, a special contribution of the Peter Lesgaft University faculty in this discipline delivered and advanced mostly by the University graduates including those who excelled in biomechanics in some other academic establishments and defended dissertations in biology or pedagogy. It could be beneficial at this juncture to empower the Biological Dissertation Councils with a responsibility to assess dissertations in sports biomechanics viewed as the human movement science or kinesiology as provided by Vadim Balsevich and commonly accepted by the relevant foreign science.
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