Figure 2.

Maximal lifespan trends have shown a plateau for the oldest supercentenarian and the oldest Olympian. Since Jeanne Calment, who currently holds the lifespan record at 122.4 years in 1997, no one has lived more than 120 years and data suggest a plateau around 115–117 years that may indicate the potential biological upper limit of our species in terms of longevity. Oldest supercentenarian trends have shown a plateau for both women (purple) and men (blue). Similarly, maximal lifespan trends for oldest Olympians have shown a plateau for both women (red) and men (orange). Data for supercentenarians are available at the Gerontological Research Group (GRG; http://www.grg.org/). Data for Olympian athletes came from the most authoritative source of Olympian biographies (Clarke et al., 2012; Antero-Jacquemin et al., 2015).