The Burrow
Sep 2, 2025
When it comes to the healthiest sports, it isn’t just a case of which types of athletes live the longest; it’s also about which activities support overall wellbeing well into later life. By looking beyond athletes’ life expectancy to a broader picture of physical and mental health, we can see how different sports affect longevity, cardiovascular resilience, and even causes of death.
As experts in health insurance comparison, we understand how the right policy can support your wellbeing and help you recover from sports-related injuries. With this in mind, we carried out research that ranks different sports using a combination of data points, such as the average lifespan of elite athletes, the percentage of deaths from cardiovascular disease compared to the global average, and the physical demands of each discipline on preventive health.
Elite athletes are often viewed as the very pinnacle of health, but does peak physical condition guarantee a long life? To explore this, we analysed the careers and lifespans of global athletes who competed at the highest level between 1949 and 1952. By focusing on sports professionals born between 1908 and 1931, we can reveal long-term patterns between discipline, physical intensity and an athlete’s life expectancy.
The context of the time period truly matters here. A person born in 1913, for example, faced two world wars and the Spanish Flu, which are both events that heavily skew life expectancy data. The result is a clearer view of which sports truly offer the best prospects for a long life and lasting athlete health.
This historical lens also allows us to examine longevity without the influence of modern training techniques, advanced sports medicine, or the financial security that many retired athletes enjoy today. The result is a rare opportunity to understand how the demands of different sports have shaped the lifespan of some of the world’s most talented competitors.
When we look at our data for athletes born between 1908 and 1931, the sport with the longest athlete life expectancy is basketball. The average age at death of a basketball player is 79.05 years, making it one of the healthiest sports. This is 12+ months more than the average life expectancy of the sport ranked in second (77.93 years for ice hockey players).
Tennis players come in at number three, thanks to an average life expectancy of 77.86 years, and golfers are very close behind at 77.66 years.
Football (76.98 years), American football (76.96 years) and cricket (76.02 years) are also higher than the overall average of all sports players during this period, which is 75.98 years.
However, athlete health stats are below average for some sports, such as rugby league (73.77 years) and baseball (73.30 years). The absolute lowest is boxing at 69.05 years.
Still, when you consider that the life expectancy of the average person born in 1913 was just 34.1 years, these figures offer a relatively long life expectancy in comparison.
These results suggest that both the physical demands and risks associated with each sport may have long-term implications for health and life expectancy.
Continuing to look at global athletes who were born between 1908 and 1931, and competed between 1949 and 1952, there are some clear patterns when it comes to cause of death.
Cardiovascular disease comes out at number one, accounting for 25.78% of deaths in our data set. This is lower than the global average of 32% in 2019, according to data from the World Health Organization.1 Australian tennis legend, Vivian McGrath, died from cardiovascular disease in 1978 at the age of 62.
Cancer or tumours were close behind as a common cause of death at 25.00%, but the figures fall sharply from there on.
Stroke (9.38%) and lung disease (6.25%) are the next most common causes of death. Then, there’s Alzheimer’s disease and road traffic accidents, both of which account for 4.69% of athletes’ deaths.
As for natural causes, the figure is very low at just 3.91%.
The habits that help elite athletes thrive can also benefit your own health and fitness routine.
Athletes in sports like basketball, tennis and golf often enjoy longer lifespans, largely thanks to steady cardiovascular exercise combined with a lower risk of serious injury. Incorporating regular, moderate-intensity activities such as brisk walking, swimming, or recreational racket sports can deliver similar long-term health benefits.
Cardiovascular health plays a major role in living a long life. Regular aerobic exercise, a balanced diet and effective stress management are vital for keeping your heart strong, whatever your sport or fitness level.
Contact sports such as boxing, American football and rugby tend to have lower average life expectancies, with injury-related complications and heart issues contributing significantly. Even at an amateur level, it’s important to use proper protective equipment, train safely and minimise unnecessary risks.
Many long-lived athletes remained active well into later life. Gentle but consistent movement (such as walking, stretching and low-impact group classes) supports mobility, cognitive function and overall wellbeing.
Elite athletes take recovery seriously, with structured routines for sleep, hydration and injury prevention. The same principles apply to everyone: listen to your body, take adequate rest, and avoid overtraining.
Steven Spicer, Executive General Manager of Health, Life and Energy at Compare the Market, commented on the findings:
“While this research shows that elite athletes can enjoy a longer life expectancy thanks to the benefits of sustained physical activity, it also reminds us that no one is completely shielded from serious health conditions like cardiovascular disease or cancer.
“Even those in peak physical condition need to prioritise regular health check-ups and ongoing monitoring. That’s where the right health insurance can make a real difference, regardless of your fitness level.
“Athletes — particularly those in lower-risk, endurance-based sports — often demonstrate healthier ageing patterns, which can lend itself to policies more geared towards maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, sportspeople in more high-intensity disciplines could find greater benefit in policies that support recovery measures such as physiotherapy and in-patient hospital services in the case of a serious injury. With a private health insurance policy, you may be able to have your choice of available doctor and potentially avoid lengthy waitlists, allowing you to get back to your training regimen with ease.”
A list of 50-100 athletes each were collected for the following sports, where the athletes were born between 1908 and 1931 and competed at an elite level between 1949 and 1952, from multiple sources.
For each of these, data on date of birth, date of death, and country were collected using the Wikidata API. Data was also collected where available from Wikipedia scrapes of the player pages on cause of death.
This data was then cleaned up to remove any athletes that fell out of the scope.
Age of death was calculated using date of birth and date of death, and an average for each sport was calculated. This average was then plotted against sport and global average lifespans for a person born in 1913 from Our World in Data.
Data on the cause of death was also cleaned, and a separate group of athletes was made for athletes for whom the cause of death was found. From these, the causes of death were counted, and a percentage of the total group was calculated. The cardiovascular death rate of athletes was then compared to the global average in 2019 from the WHO.
Additional sources:
You can find the 2021 version of this data here.