The fates of Czechoslovak contestants in Olympic games.
Since the Second Olympic Games of the new era up to the Games in 1988 on the whole 2031 Czechoslovak competitors participated in both Summer and Winter Games. The author succeeded in compiling items on the length of life and causes of decease of 265 Olympic participants who died up to the end of 1989. The study of those items revealed that the length of living of those athletes who died in the period 1950 till 1989 was 67.4 years. That indice may be compared with men in population with a mean length of life 67.7 years in 1988. It is however necessary to take into consideration that the studied sample of Olympic competitors represents a certain selection of men. The causes of natural death of Olympic competitors do not differ in principle from natural deceases of other former Czechoslovak athletes and also no expressive differences were found in comparison with natural causes of death of men in population.
Schmid
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Institut of Sports Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003604:Czechoslovakia; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D013177:Sports