Top-level sportspeople can live more than five years longer than the rest of the population, a study has found.
Using Commonwealth Games competitor records from since the inaugural event in 1930, the International Longevity Centre UK found large differences in the longevity of medal winners compared with people in the general population born in the same year.
Its report, Marathon or sprint: do elite-level athletes live longer than average?, by Prof Les Mayhew and Ray Algar, says that in male competitors in aquatic sports, longevity was increased by 29%, equating to 5.3 extra years of life.
There was a 25% increase for male track competitors and 24% for those who took part in indoor sport competitions, while the longevity of female competitors across all sports categories was boosted by 22% – or 3.9 extra years of life.
The study, funded by Bayes Business School, also found that longevity was marginally higher for long-distance runners than those who run shorter distances, and wrestlers lived longer than boxers.
Cycling was the only sport that was not associated with longer lives: the longevity of male competitors was only 90% of that of the general male population, although the authors said this was changing as safety improved.
Mayhew, the associate head of global research at the ILC and a professor of statistics at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), said: “We’ve long known that playing sport has a variety of health benefits, but our research shows what a significant impact top-level sport can have on the longevity of the world’s athletes.
“As people watch the efforts of the London marathon runners with awe, perhaps they might reflect that although you can’t generally participate at the highest level throughout your life, the benefits evidently stay with you long after you hang up your trainers or your swimming goggles.”
Sharron Davies, the British Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimming medallist, said the research should show politicians the importance of maintaining sports facilities for the public.
“Politically, it is easy to measure benefit if someone gets sick and you fix them, but if people don’t get sick in the first place, how do we show that we’re saving the nation money?” she said. “That’s the problem we have implementing prevent rather than cure. But prevention is less painful and cheaper.
“As we age, we atrophy – we lose muscle, we can’t burn calories. The rate of death of people who fall over and break a hip is huge, yet having core strength means people can balance more easily.
“It’s about teaching people what exercise means long-term. It’s not just about living longer but living more good years.”
One of the longest-living Commonwealth Games medallists is Edna Child, now 100. She was born in 1922 in the East End of London and spent much of her childhood in and out of hospitals with empyema, a serious lung condition. Ignoring advice not to over-exert herself, she won two gold medals in diving at the 1950 Games in Auckland.
Brian Whittle, a European athletics championships medallist and now an MSP, said: “I learned behaviour traits such as discipline, resilience, confidence and aspiration during my years as an athlete. There’s a huge connect between physical health and mental health.”
