Published in the British Medical Journal, not one but two studies have provided evidence that sportspersons or Olympic athletes are not benefitted larger with the intensity of exercise they do in their field.

The report has revealed that the Olympic athletes also have the same life expectancy rate with only a little survival advantage. Phillip M. Clarke, PhD and colleagues from the University of Melbourne in Australia had organized a study involving 15,174 former Olympic athletes.

The athletes were from nine different country groups who had won medals from 1896-2010. Examining them and comparing them with the general population, it was found that more number of athletes lived after 30 years of winning. It was noted that they were living for almost 2.8 years more as compared to matched controls.

Besides, another retrospective cohort study was carried out by Ruben Zwiers and team at the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, Netherlands. It discovered after examining 9,889 Olympic athletes from 1896-1936 that disciplines with a greater bodily collision risk was causing increased mortality as high levels of physical contact did.

"Although the evidence is a small survival effect of being an Olympian, careful reflection suggests that similar health benefits and longevity could be achieved by anyone through regular physical activity", say the authors.