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Originally Posted by Villages PL

I didn't spend much time at that site but I think there could be several reasons. Here's what I would guess:

1. Diet: This is probably a big factor. Most athletes are not known for eating salads, right? If anything, they are big consumers of animal protein and starch.

2. Training: How about the stress of competition? To qualify, you have to be highly competitive and elite athletes train hard. This can raise cortisol levels.

3. Performance enhancing drugs: I'm not sure about this but it may be a factor.

4. Sports injuries and deaths: Those who die young in training or competition will serve to bring the average life expectancy down. I'm not sure how big a factor this is but we have heard of runners dropping dead while running and basketball players dropping dead during a game.

5. Risk taking: Elite athletes are relatively young and may tend to be risk takers in general. Think drugs, booze and partying. This may or may not be a factor.

Getting back to diet, most elite athletes are big and tall and expend a lot of energy. So they eat a lot and burn a lot of calories. The more calories one burns the more free radicals that are created in the burning process. And these free radicals cause damage to cells. In other words, they burn themselves out. Well, it's just a theory.

Having said that, in small-animal studies that have been conducted since the 1930s, animals that are fed low calorie diets live considerably longer than those who are allowed to eat as much as they want.

After reading your stats the first think tha came to mind was they burn out while the rest of us wear out