A new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reveals that athletes who achieve a sub-four-minute mile tend to live approximately five years longer than their predicted life expectancy.
Researchers monitored the lifespan of the initial 200 athletes to ever complete a mile in under four minutes, covering a period from 1954 to 1974. These athletes hailed from 28 diverse countries across Europe, North America, Oceania, and Africa. Researchers, including those from the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Australia, discovered that these athletes surpassed the general population's life expectancy by several years.
On average, they lived nearly five years beyond their predicted lifespan. Moreover, those who achieved their first sub-four-minute mile in the 1950s lived nine years longer than the general population, while those from the 1960s and 1970s lived 5.5 years and almost three years longer, respectively.
The analysis revealed that the average age of surviving athletes was 77 years, while deceased athletes passed away at an average age of 73. All 200 athletes, born between 1928 and 1955, were approximately 23 years old when they first achieved a sub-four-minute mile. The researchers noted that while extreme endurance exercise was previously thought to potentially shorten life expectancy, these findings challenge that notion.
