After a series of unsuccessful performances of the USSR national teams at the Olympic Games in 1968, the sports science community was assigned a task to improve the performance at the Olympic Games and other international competitions through the introduction of scientific findings into preparation practices of the USSR national teams. With this purpose, a network of problem research laboratories was founded in different cities of the country. Their objective was to solve applied scientific problems most relevant for the elite sports. Among other organizations established in the beginning of 1969, the Problem Research Laboratory of High Training Loads was created at the Kiev State Institute of Physical Culture. Its first Academic Supervisors were Professors M. Y. Gorkin and I. V. Wrzesniewski. V. D. Monogarov was appointed the Head of the Laboratory. Throughout the entire period of the Laboratory activities, its personnel and material and technical potential was focused on the development of the most urgent problems of sports science related to training of elite athletes. The processes of fatigue and recovery during strenuous muscular activity, the long-term adaptation responses during middle and high altitude training, he issues of sports selection and orientation, modeling and forecasting, complex control, structure and content of various elements of the training process, and others were studied in depth. A harmonious combination of fundamental and applied research and a purposeful implementation of scientific research findings carried out by experts of the Problem Research Laboratory delivered many useful practical decisions both in various Olympic sports as well as in such a non-Olympic sport as mountaineering.