Reliable data are scanty on the incidence of chronic diseases and life 
expectancy (LE) of highly trained athletes. We therefore studied Finnish male 
world class athletes to estimate the LE of athletes. Finnish team members in the 
Olympic games, World or European championships or intercountry competitions 
during 1920-1965 in track and field athletics, cross-country skiing, soccer, ice 
hockey, basketball, boxing, wrestling, weight lifting, and shooting were 
included (N = 2613 men). The reference cohort, 1712 men, was selected from the 
Finnish Defence Forces conscription register matched on age and area of 
residence. All referents were classified completely healthy at the time of 
induction to military service. The stratified Kaplan-Meier product limit method 
and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to estimate the life 
expectancies and the mortality odds ratios (OR) and their confidence limits. The 
mean LE adjusted for occupational group, marital status, and the age at entry to 
the cohort (and its 95% confidence limits) was in endurance sports (long 
distance running and cross-country skiing) 75.6 (73.6, 77.5) yr; in team games 
(soccer, ice hockey, basketball, as well as jumpers and short-distance runners 
from track and field (73.9 (72.7, 75.1) yr; in power sports (boxing, wrestling, 
weight lifting, and throwers from field athletics) 71.5 (70.4, 72.2) yr; and in 
the reference group 69.9 (69.0, 70.9) yr. The increased mean life expectancies 
were mainly explained by decreased cardiovascular mortality (endurance sports 
mortality odds ratio OR = 0.49 (95% CL 0.26, 0.93), team sports OR = 0.61 (0.41, 
0.92) compared with referents). For maximum life span no differences between the 
groups were observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)