The longevity of sporting legends Note on the author Professor Les Mayhew is Head of Global Research at the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC) and a professor of statistics at the Business School (formerly Cass), City, University of London in the Faculty of Actuarial Science and Insurance. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries and a member of the Royal Economic Society. He is a former senior civil servant in the Department of Health and Social Security, Department of Social Security, Treasury and a Director in the Office for National Statistics. He loves sport although his only ever notable success was winning the Civil Service mixed tennis doubles – an achievement which now seems ancient history. His interest in statistics was kindled by keeping score for his dad’s cricket team at a very young age. He also confesses to supporting a well-known premier league football team but refuses to say which one to avoid accusations of bias! Acknowledgements ILC UK is grateful to the Business school (formerly Cass) for supporting this research and for the many useful conversations the author has had with like-minded sports enthusiasts. Author: Les Mayhew:
[email protected] 2 The longevity of sporting legends Contents Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................6 Our sports selection ...............................................................................................................6