Mário Costa is a Professor with Habilitation in Sport Sciences (specialization in swimming biophysics). During his career Mário had previous experience in coaching several swimming squads at a local and national level. He was member of the front office for evaluation and training control of the Portuguese Swimming Federation. Nowadays he is the Vice-President of the Portuguese Swimming Coaches Association.

His research focus includes identifying the most determinant factors and quantifying mechanisms underlying aquatic sports. There is also interest in understanding the effects of different training methods in physical form and technical ability from young to senior athletes (within the spectrum of individual sports). He has also the intent to study and clarify the most appropriate strategies for elementary swimming teaching and to potentiate the benefits of aquatic fitness and/or aquatic rehabilitation classes.

He has authorship in more than 100 papers published in indexed journals, showing a H index of 22 and more than 1200 citations. He has taken more than 150 reviews for at least 60 different scientific journals.