Elite Runners Who Broke the 4-Minute Mile May Live Longer

Spending 10 hours each week running more than 120 km (75 miles) undoubtedly qualifies as extreme exercise. However, rather than driving the body past its limits, a recent study indicates that some Olympic-standard professional athletes may gain extra years of life from these punishing training schedules.

The analysis, published in May, drew on public health records for the first 200 people to run a mile in less than 4 minutes during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. A research team from Canada and Australia found that, on average, these professional runners outlived the wider population by nearly five years.

Elite runners and life expectancy

These results challenge the idea that excessive exercise inevitably harms health over the long term. For at least certain people, taking the human body to its maximum capacity may instead prove advantageous.

Although many epidemiological studies indicate that active people tend to live longer than inactive people, it remains uncertain whether exercising beyond recommended levels helps or harms health.

Some scientists have suggested that the lifestyles of high-intensity athletes competing in marathons, endurance cycling and triathlons may place excessive strain on the heart, increasing their likelihood of premature death.

Yet, while vigorous exercise can clearly expose previously sedentary people to health problems, experienced athletes may have different outcomes.

A Harvard study in 2022 found that people who exercised above the recommended amount could reduce their risk of death by 30 percent – 10 percent more than those who followed activity guidelines.

University of Alberta cardiologist Stephen Foulkes and his colleagues note that epidemiological research involving Tour de France cyclists, Olympic athletes and rowers has likewise reported longer lifespans than in the general population.

Mile runners who broke the 4-minute barrier

Researchers have now found that the same trend applies to the quickest mile runners. Athletes capable of reaching the one-mile mark in under 4 minutes form a distinctive group, recognised for pushing their respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal systems to the limit.

Achieving such pace requires runners to undertake regular bouts of high-intensity physical activity over the course of each week.

In 2018, cardiologists reported that the first 20 runners to complete a mile in under 4 minutes lived, on average, 12 years beyond general life expectancy. The latest research examines a bigger cohort spanning three decades.

Notably, runners who went under 4 minutes for the mile during the 1960s had a higher life expectancy than those who managed the achievement in later decades.

"This may reflect improvements in life expectancy from the general population," the authors suggest, along with the "management of several major communicable and non-communicable diseases."

Put another way, the life-expectancy advantages observed among professional athletes may not all arise from their lifestyle. Athletes may, for example, carry favourable genes more often than the broader population.

Among the 200 mile runners, the researchers identified 20 sibling pairs and several father-and-son pairings.

Why the athletes may live longer

"While we could not determine the cause of death for the majority of runners, studies reporting on Tour de France cyclists and cohorts of Olympians (that include middle to long distance runners) suggest the longevity effects are primarily mediated by decreased rates of cardiovascular and cancer-related mortality," write Foulkes and colleagues.

The team says its analysis "reiterates the benefits of exercise on the lifespan, even at the levels of training required for elite performance."

The study appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

An earlier version of this article was published in May 2024.