The assumption is that playing sport is good for your health. But is it also good for longevity? That is to say, will you live longer if you play sports? This report looks at the lifespan of different groups of sporting legends who’ve reached the pinnacle of their profession in seven hugely popular sports – football, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf, boxing and horse racing.

Key findings include:

• Professional sportsmen may live up to 13% longer than those in the general population.
• Professionals in cricket, rugby, tennis, golf and horse racing are more likely to live longer now than they were between 1900 and 1960 whereas footballers are more likely to have shorter lives now than in the 1930s and 1940s.
• Many of the differences in life expectancy between sports can be accredited to varied levels of risk of injury, differences in socioeconomic status associated with a given sport, varying education levels and leadership qualities.

On Thursday, 10 June 2021 we discussed these findings further at a webinar, where we were joined by a panel of elite athletes, such as:

• Alan Smith (former England, Arsenal and Leicester footballer)
• Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson (former Paralympian and House of Lords Crossbench peer)
• Sir Brendan Foster OBE (former Olympian and founder of the Great North Run)

Author: Prof Les Mayhew