Olympians and Other High Performance Athletes Live Longer

Jogging, running, walking, lifting, bending, huffing and puffing.

All those New Year resolutions on display. Everyone involved determined to start anew, lead a more disciplined, happier, fulfilling life.

We laugh at such resolve, understanding that, for most, the effort is in vain. The demand on time and attention simply too much in the context of over-scheduled 24/7 lives. What's the point of even trying?

The point, recent research indicates, is that commitment to a more fit, healthier body and mind may well be a longer life. And it may not require winning an Olympic medal to achieve (though it certainly doesnt hurt).

The study demonstrates that it is not just athletes in high intensity or endurance sports that live longer. Almost any competitive athlete - or someone training seriously - can realize the same benefits. Now, if we could just bend over to tie our running shoe laces...JL

The Washington Post reports:

When medal-winning athletes return home from the Olympic Games, their fame may be short-lived, but they can look forward to a long life. A new study has found that Olympic medalists live an average of 2.8 years longer than the rest of us. The study used data on 15,174 male and female athletes who won medals in Olympic Games since 1896 and found that 30 years after their success at an Olympics, 8 percent more medalists were alive than were similarly aged people from their country.

Commenting on the study’s weaknesses, the authors suggested that maybe you don’t need to win a medal — or even be good enough to make an Olympic team — to outlive the average person: “Athletes generally, not merely the elite, could have similar survival advantages,” they wrote.

The effect, a second study concluded, isn’t seen just in Olympic athletes who participated in high-endurance or high-intensity events. Looking at Olympians who competed between 1896 and 1936, researchers found no difference in mortality, for example, between cyclists, rowers, tennis stars and cricket players.

A factor that did make a difference in mortality was physical contact. Olympians in sports with higher rates of bodily collisions, such as boxing, had an 11 percent greater mortality risk than those in sports with minimal collisions.

Both studies were published online in the journal BMJ. The researchers hypothesized that medalists might live longer because of their intensive training or exercise levels throughout life, or because their success led to increased wealth or education, but more research will be needed to determine what is at play.