It goes without saying that sports is life threatening. Historically sports as an organised event were initiated to advance physical fitness, for development of human skills & for the leisurely entertainment of the royals and noblemen. In past (we are looking at you Gladiators), sports have taken many lives. In this list we are going to delve into 10 deadly sports that can end up sending you straight to hell (or heaven) if you dare to participate.
These are TOP 10 Incredibly Dangerous, Deadly Sports in the world:
10. Motorcycle Racing
The Isle of Man TT event – which has been going around for the past 100 years – alone has caused over 220 deaths. Racing necessarily involves travelling at high speed which can easily cause accidents at the slightest of errors. The Motorcycle racers’ race over all sort of terrains ranging from desert to hills and even muddy forested areas to get their adrenalins pumping. A crash is likely to hurt the spectators well.
9. Heliskiing
This is unbelievable. In this deadly sports people actually pay loads of money (which is around $500) to get helicoptered to a virgin land untouched by any man before only to ski down the white slope. These skiers – obviously millionaires but that’s beside the point, spend hundreds of dollars to ski down a natural landscape unlike the manipulated terrains of a ski-resort. The natural environment most obviously involves greater risks and discomfort.
Even the journey into the interior part of a mountainous area has often been life-threatening in past. In 1994 Frank Wells the former president of Disney had diedin a helicopter crash during a heli-skiing trip.
8. Street Luging
Street Lunging originally evolved from skateboarding. In this sport, a man or a woman will have to lie flat on a sled (also known as luge board) and will roll down a paved highway automatically by gravitational force. It’ll slowly gain momentum and in case something goes wrong and you decided to stop….ah, wait, seems I forgot to inform you; It has NO breaks.
Street luging players are advised to use some mandatory safety equipment like; Front and rear padding for the sled, leather and Kelvar shoes and gloves, helmets etc.. Even then the breaking speed required to pull off ‘street luging’ may eventually end up breaking your leg (see the above video).
7. Big Wave Surfing
The name is suggestive. Big Wave Surfing necessarily involves paddling into monster waves ranging from 20 to 50 ft high. The surfers are to master it and come out alive. These are strong waves equipped with nature’s brutal force that can bury you deep into the dark ocean (like it did to the celebrated Mark Foo) or damage your eardrums.
It is even capable of taking lives by smashing surfers’ skull (an Australian study had revealed only 2% of surfers to be regular helmet wearers) into submerged rocks and sometimes the surf boards itself proves to be lethal. It goes to say that sports fanatics are wacko.
6. Cheerleading
Forget about the dancing legs and sexy moves. This deadly sports (yes it’s a sports and the debate regarding this reference is still on) is hell dangerous. There has been reported over 20,000 injuries of cheerleaders per year that makes it the most injury-prone sport for women. Most common injuries are painfully fractured vertebra and broken legs.
In case the cheerleader falls on his/her head there’s a high possibility of suffering from concussion and bruised lungs. Once considered the most dangerous school activity, cheerleading can be pursued as a professional career in United Stated, United Kingdom et al. There’s a handful of professional cheerleading leagues around the world.
5. Bull Riding
There’s a Professional Bull Riding Organisation to look after the sports which is quiet popular in USA, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia. The risk factor in this game can be well understood by the single fact that the rider has to last only 8 seconds on the bull’s back.
Most people don’t make it that long and are thrown 10 fts into the air landing face-down or on their skull. And that’s not all, chances are that the raging bull would charge head-long at the rider to finish him off. As the above video shows, it’s not even safe for the spectators watching from behind the stands.
4. Running Of The Bulls
Running of the bulls (or encierroin Spanish) is another freaky adventure sports. Basically some bulls are let loose along the town’s streets and participants have to run in front of them. Pamplona in Spain (mentioned in Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” and “Death in the Afternoon”) is the most famous among all the encierros. Bollywood film ‘Zindagi Na Milengi Dobara’ had featured shots of Pamplona that garnered praises as well as criticisms.
‘Bull running’ has been for long engulfed in heated debates between animal right activists – most notably by Peta who organised a mock demonstration ‘running of the nudes’ every year to oppose the game – and sports lovers. This apart around 300 people are injured and several killed in ‘bull running’ annually.
3. High Altitude Climbing
Out of every six successful Everest climbers, one climber is estimated to die. Worse still the climbers on their way up are often greeted by frozen corpses of other climbers. Threats of hypoxia, hypothermia, frostbite and pneumonia are always around the corner. Helicopter rescues are not always feasible therefore even a simple injury is potentially lethal.
If you lose your goggles, chances are your corneas will be burned by excess exposure to UV radiation. Though the mortality rates have been reducing since 1990 (due to the advent of better safety equipments), till date out of 1,300 Everest climbers around 179 have lost their lives.
2. Base Jumping
It is considered an ‘extreme sports’ often mocked as ‘attempting suicide’! The participants (with perfectly sane minds) deliberately throw themselves off of a high place like building, Spans, Antenna or cliff. They use a parachute to break their fall and land safely on the ground. ‘Safe’ is but a word, for when nature breaks wind the jumper is often send slamming into the near-by rock or such other structures.
Every year around 5 to 15 people die participating in this deadly sports. The ‘BASE Fatality List’ published in 2014 has recorded 230 deaths since 1981. No wonder this is sport is illegal in many countries.
1. Cave Diving
Another hell of a sport that takes place deep down in the caves water. This is largely done to explore uncharted territories. Consider the risks – low-visibility, freezing temperatures & cramped places. One has to ask – why would anyone take such a crazy bet on one’s life. What if the oxygen supply equipment malfunctions, what if we get lost in the unknown dark wilderness?
A recovery team based in San Marcos has reported more than 500 deaths from ‘cave diving’ since the 1960s. Most of the victims are said to have been diving with instructors and technical divers. Following this, the National Speleological Society defined a “successful” cave diving to be the “one you return from.”