title: Learning From Leaders: Life-span Trends in Olympians and Supercentenarians.
abstract: Life-span trends progression has worldwide practical implications as it may affect the sustainability of modern societies. We aimed to describe the secular life-span trends of populations with a propensity to live longer-Olympians and supercentenarians-under two hypotheses: an ongoing life-span extension versus a biologic "probabilistic barrier" limiting further progression. In a study of life-span densities (total number of life durations per birth date), we analyzed 19,012 Olympians and 1,205 supercentenarians deceased between 1900 and 2013. Among most Olympians, we observed a trend toward increased life duration. This trend, however, decelerates at advanced ages leveling off with the upper values with a perennial gap between Olympians and supercentenarians during the whole observation period. Similar tendencies are observed among supercentenarians, and over the last years, a plateau attests to a stable longevity pattern among the longest-lived humans. The common trends between Olympians and supercentenarians indicate similar mortality pressures over both populations that increase with age, scenario better explained by a biologic "barrier" forecast.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d'Epidemiologie du Sport, Institut National du Sport de l'Expertise et de la Performance, Paris, France. Université Paris Descartes, EA 7329, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France. juliana.antero@insep.fr.
authors.forename: Juliana da Silva
authors.initials: Jda S
authors.lastname: Antero-Jacquemin
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d'Epidemiologie du Sport, Institut National du Sport de l'Expertise et de la Performance, Paris, France. Université Paris Descartes, EA 7329, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France.
authors.forename: Geoffroy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berthelot
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d'Epidemiologie du Sport, Institut National du Sport de l'Expertise et de la Performance, Paris, France. Université Paris Descartes, EA 7329, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France.
authors.forename: Adrien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marck
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d'Epidemiologie du Sport, Institut National du Sport de l'Expertise et de la Performance, Paris, France. Université Paris Descartes, EA 7329, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Noirez
authors.affiliation: Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Aurélien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Latouche
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche bioMédicale et d'Epidemiologie du Sport, Institut National du Sport de l'Expertise et de la Performance, Paris, France. Université Paris Descartes, EA 7329, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France. Centre d'Investigations en Médecine du Sport, Hôtel-Dieu, AP-HP, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Toussaint
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male
keywords: Demography; Life span; Longevity