Whom the gods love die young?: The mortality of German Olympic participants from 1956 to 2016

Abstract

While moderate exercise has a positive influence on the life expectancy of a risk group, there are mixed findings on the impact of competitive sports on health. For Germany, there has only been one study on football (soccer) players of the national team. Thus, based on the data of the members of the German Olympic teams from 1956 to 2016 (n = 6066), different hypotheses were tested, such as the longevity in comparison to the total population, the effects on athletes’ metabolism, the differences between individual, mixed and team sports, and the effects of doping, Olympic success and gender. Membership in the Olympic teams of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and reunited Germany was also taken into account. The analysis shows that members of the German Olympic teams have a higher mortality rate compared to the total population. Members of the Olympic teams of the former FRG do not show higher survival rates than those from the GDR. Furthermore, no differences between types of sports can be found, but there appears to be a positive correlation between Olympic success and mortality rates.