Myopia (short-sightedness) is the most common refractive disorder throughout the world prone to progression which is caused, inter alia, by violation of the working regime and resting conditions in the combination with the enhanced physical and psychological stresses. Aim. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the influence of the strenuous physical exercises on the visual analyzer in the children and adolescents regularly engaged in sports activities. Materials and methods. A total of 600 children and adolescents at the age from 8 to 17 years were recruited for the participation in the study. They were allocated to two groups of 300 subjects each. The first group was comprised of the children regularly involved in sport activities («athletes») while the second group included the children and adolescents not involved in the sports activities on a regular basis («schoolchildren»). The groups were additionally divided into two subgroups that consisted of 150 members each. One subgroup within each group was composed of the persons with emmetropic refraction («healthy») while the other included the children presenting with mild or moderately severe myopia. The parameters of visual acuity, the length of the anterior-posterior segment of the eye, and indices of regional hemodynamics of the eye were evaluated in all the participants of the study. Results. Twelve months after the initiation of the study, the members of the first group («athletes») were found to exhibit a slight decrease in visual acuity with and without ts correction and without correction as well as a statistically significant decrease of refraction by 0.14±0.18 dptr on the average (p=0.009). In the members of the second group not engaged in sports activities on a regular bases («schoolchildren№), the decrease in visual acuity without correction and parameters of refraction averaged 0.06±0.19 dptr (p=0.004) and 0.35±0.61 dptr (p<0.001), respectively. Deterioration of short-sightedness amongst the children of the first group («athletes») was documented in 3 cases (2.0%) compared with 11 (7.3%) in the second group («schoolchildren»). Among the healthy adolescents, myopia was diagnosed 12 months after the beginning of the observations in 9 cases (6%) in the first group («athletes») and in 15 (10%) cases in the second group («schoolchildren»). Conclusion. The results of the present study give evidence that physical training on a regular basis facilitates the reduction of the risk of developing myopia; moreover, it helps to stabilize the visual acuity without correction and reduce the rate of progression of the myopic process in the adolescents having mild and moderate myopia.