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Live fast, die young – the boomer motto from the rock ‘n’ roll and hippie era also seems to be a useful formula for athletes. “Young” is a flexible term, but the fact that physical activity alone does not guarantee a long life is shown by the CVs of many hard-working workers who – exhausted from the drudgery – did not live very long. Saul Newman from the University of Oxford is now showing that intensity and moderation are apparently also important in sport, at least when it comes to life expectancy. In the specialist magazine Science Advances the population researcher explains, using the example of thousands of top athletes, that the circumstances of a professional career also determine the life span.