Although a regular moderate physical activity is commonly accepted as an 
important heath promoting factor, the role of professional sport training is 
still under debate. The presented mortality analysis, concerning the period of 
1946-2000, was performed for three groups of people completely healthy in youth, 
but exhibiting different physical activity level in those days: all Polish 
athletes who participated in the Olympic Games (1689 males, 424 females), drama 
actors/actresses (2406/1938), and monks/ nuns (796/323). In all studied cohorts 
mortality was lower than that of gender adjusted, Polish urban population. The 
SMR values equaled 0.50 for male athletes, 0.78 for actors, 0.64 for monks, and 
respectively 0.73, 0.84, and 0.77 for corresponding female cohorts. Moreover, 
the direct comparison indicated that the mortality of male athletes was 
significantly lower than that of actors and monks: the age-standardized rate 
ratio of death were equal: 0.64 and 0.81 respectively. The sportsmen also 
exhibited the longest mean survival. The similar, but not statistically 
significant trends were observed for female cohorts. All the obtained results 
proved that high level physical activity in youth positively influenced men's 
mortality, what was observed for the former athletes even after 40 years since 
the end of their professional carrier.