Former elite athletes experienced sport-specific lifespan gains and deficits relative to the general population. Digest
Regular exercise is widely known to support good health and longer life, but less is known about whether all sports have similar long-term effects. To explore this question, researchers analyzed the lifespans of former elite athletes from around the world and compared them with people in the general population. Their goal was to see whether certain sports were associated with longer or shorter lives.
You just missed this in your inbox
Every other week our Premium Members received this exact study plus Rhonda's practical commentary and 8+ other hand-picked papers.
The researchers gathered publicly available records of deceased elite athletes from Wikidata and English Wikipedia. The final dataset included 95,210 athletes from 183 countries who competed in 44 different sports disciplines. About 96% of the athletes were men, reflecting historical differences in participation and record-keeping. For each athlete, the team calculated an "age difference", defined as how many years the athlete lived above or below the expected lifespan of the general population matched for sex, country, and year of death. This approach allowed fair comparisons across regions and time periods.
- Male athletes typically lived about three years longer than their matched reference population. Female athletes showed no clear overall lifespan advantage, with results varying by sport and limited by small sample size.
- Among men, pole vaulting and gymnastics were linked to the largest lifespan gains, each associated with about eight additional years of life compared with the general population.
- Several endurance or mixed track-and-field sports, such as running, hurdling, and race walking, were linked to gains of roughly four to six years in men.
- Some sports showed negative associations. Male sumo wrestlers lived nearly ten fewer years than expected, and volleyball players lived about five fewer years than expected.
- Team sports in men showed mixed results. Cricket, rowing, baseball, and water polo were linked to longer lifespans, while handball and volleyball were linked to shorter ones.
- Racquet sports, which combined tennis and badminton, stood out as consistently positive in both sexes, with men living nearly six years longer and women about three years longer than expected.
Sports that combine endurance and strength may offer broader health benefits, such as better heart health, stronger muscles, and improved metabolism. In contrast, sports with high injury risk or extreme physical demands may place long-term stress on the body. For example, frequent joint and muscle trauma may help explain the negative association seen in volleyball, while the extreme body weight and diet common in sumo wrestling may further strain long-term health. The findings for women were less clear, largely because far fewer female athletes were included and many sports lacked enough data for reliable estimates. Stronger conclusions about women will require larger and more representative datasets.
This was an observational study, meaning it can identify patterns but cannot prove cause and effect. Still, the study suggests that not all sports are associated with longevity in the same way. In episode #85, Peter Attia breaks down practical approaches to mastering longevity.