The 20th Century Cold War in Terms of Life Expectancy of Former Olympic Medallists

This study investigates whether prolonged exposure to intense physical demands, stress, and post-career lifestyle impacts survival. A cohort study analysed survival data from 2,922 Olympic medallists who competed between 1952 and 1980 (the peak of the Cold War era), including athletes from the USSR (n =1,387) and four Western English-speaking countries (n = 1,535) representing the same “sports culture”. The data was collected from the official website of the IOC and from the medallists’ personal websites. Log-rank tests and Cox regression were used to compare survival rates. Results indicated that Soviet male athletes' first quartile mortality occurred at 38 years post-career, compared to 51 years for Western peers. For women, the figures were 49 and 64 years, respectively. Women, irrespective of their belonging, demonstrate a hazard rate that is 50% lower than that of men. The hazard ratio for Soviet Olympians averaged 1.86 compared to their Western counterparts.