The College of Physical Education of Hunan Normal University is located on the South Campus of Normal University, with Xiangjiang River to the east and Yuelu Mountain to the west. In the summer of 1938, the first independent teacher training college in China, the National Normal University, was established in Lantian Town, Anhua County, Hunan Province. In 1939, the National Normal University established a three-year specialized program for sports scouting. In 1945, the National Normal University established a Department of Physical Education and recruited four-year undergraduate students nationwide. Since its inception, the school has carried the dominant gene of sports and health, and has carried forward this distinctive school-running feature in the historical evolution.

In 1939, the first president of the school, Mr. Liao Shicheng, implemented the 19th school administrative plan, which clearly stipulated the talent training goal of "sports first", which set a trend in the higher education field. In the 1980s, Professor Wang Bubiao, director of the physical education Department, member of The State Council's physical education discipline evaluation group, and winner of the first National Natural Science Foundation (longitudinal research on young children's physical fitness), carried forward the concept of "Comprehensive Health" education. In 1985, sports physiology was approved as a key discipline in Hunan Province, and began to recruit master's students in the same year. It is an important unit for training sports physiology teachers in China. Since the beginning of the new century, on the basis of undergraduate education, the school highlights master's education, develops doctoral education (approved doctoral program in 2005), and takes into account adult education and international student education. It has now formed a high-level, multi standard, and multi form educational pattern, which is the cradle of various sports talents training in Hunan Province, as well as an important battlefield for sports science research, social services, and cultural inheritance in Hunan Province.

The school consists of 7 departments, including 10 teaching and research departments of Sports Human Science, Sports Humanities and Sociology, Basketball, Volleyball, Football, Small Ball, Track and Field, Martial Arts and Folklore, Gymnastics, Swimming, as well as 3 university physical education teaching groups. We offer five undergraduate education majors, including physical education (including Sino foreign cooperative education programs), sports human science, social sports guidance and management, sports training, martial arts, and traditional ethnic sports. We have a postdoctoral research station in sports science, the authority to confer doctoral degrees in first level disciplines of sports science, the authority to confer master's degrees in first level disciplines of sports science, and a professional degree program for master's degrees in sports science. It has a national experimental teaching demonstration center for sports science, a key research base for sports social sciences of the General Administration of Sport of China, a key laboratory for physical fitness and sports rehabilitation in Hunan Province, and a research base for sports public services in Hunan Province. There are Hunan Sports Industry Research Institute, Hunan Normal University Football Education Research Institute, and Hunan Normal University Ethnic Sports Culture Research Institute. The physical education major was selected as one of the first batch of national characteristic majors by the Ministry of Education in 2007 and the first batch of national first-class professional construction points in 2019. We have 2 national first-class courses and 3 first-class courses in Hunan Province. We have 9 undergraduate and postgraduate training innovation bases in Hunan Province. It is a selected unit of the Sports and Art Education Immersion Action Plan of the Ministry of Education, a training base for sports and art teachers of the Ministry of Education, and a vocational skills appraisal and training center of the Ministry of Health. It is the leading unit of the Hunan Provincial Branch of the National School Sports Alliance (Physical Education) and the Hunan Provincial Branch of the National School Sports Alliance (Chinese Martial Arts). It is the only examination center for physical education majors in Hunan Province's ordinary colleges and universities.

The college currently has 157 faculty members, including 130 full-time teachers, 30 professors, 41 associate professors, 17 doctoral supervisors, 56 with doctoral degrees. Among the full-time teachers, there are 3 member of the National Teaching Guidance Committee (including basic education, undergraduate education, professional degree postgraduate education), 4 members of the Hunan Provincial Talent Project, 16 international level referees. In the past decade, teachers have been approved more than 30 National Research Projects such as national key research and development projects. Obtained 228 invention patents, 4 Hunan Provincial Natural Science Awards, and published a total of 120 specialized (translated) works and textbooks as the first author or editor in chief.

The college has complete hardware facilities for teaching and research, including 2 multi-functional comprehensive sports halls, 4 standard track and field courts, 15 basketball courts, 5 tennis courts, 1 standard temperature controlled swimming pool, and 2 indoor 110 meter track and field halls; There is a sports experimental center with an area of 4000 square meters and a total value of nearly 10 million yuan in equipment, as well as a sports teaching building of nearly 10000 square meters.

The college currently has 2092 full-time undergraduate students, 554 master's students, and 40 doctoral students. At present, the college has more than 30 sports teams, which have made remarkable achievements in various sports competitions, 5 people have reached the Olympic champion, the track and field team has won the first place in the team total score of the National College Athletics Championships for three consecutive times, and the first place in the team total score of the National Higher Normal University College Athletics Championships for four consecutive times. In 2023, at the 31st Summer Universiade, our students won 3 gold medals and our school was awarded the "Advanced Collective" of the Universiade. The karate team has won more than 100 national championships and sent six athletes to the national team. The table tennis team has won many championships in the National University Games and other events, and has trained outstanding students such as world champion Zhou Yu. The rowing team has become one of the three Chinese universities to participate in the World University Rowing Championships. Hundreds of sports of the university have entered the top eight in the international arena, and won the "President's Cup" of the National Universiade three times. In August 2024, the students of our school fought hard and bravely in the 33rd Summer Olympic Games in Paris, and achieved excellent results. Hou Zhihui won the gold medal in women's 49kg weightlifting, Zhang Yayi helped the Chinese delegation to win the first gold medal in synchronized swimming at the Olympic Games, and Zhang Boheng completed the 21 events of the Olympic Games with outstanding performance and won the silver medal of the men's gymnastics team, the silver medal of the men's individual all-around and the bronze medal of the men's horizontal bar, which won honour for the country and the people and added lustre to the school.

The college increasingly values academic exchanges with domestic and foreign universities and cultural institutions. It has established close contacts with many universities or educational institutions in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Uruguay, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, and exchanged teachers and international students. We often invite renowned scholars from abroad to give lectures and hold academic seminars at the college. In 2018, we collaborated with the University of Central Lancashire in the UK to offer undergraduate education in sports education (4+0) program. Upon graduation, students can obtain a Bachelor's degree certificate and a Bachelor's degree certificate from Hunan Normal University, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Sports and Physical Education from the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom. At present, more than 260 graduates have obtained graduation certificates and degree certificates issued by the two universities. In March 2021, the China Scholarship Council approved our university's "Interdisciplinary Integration and Innovative International Cooperation Talent Training Project for Sports and Health".