Class of sport
This article is about Extreme sport.
For other physical exercise cultures, see Physical culture
A free solo ice climber on💶 a steep ice slope, with personal safety gear (such as a helmet) but completely without a rope or any form💶 of climbing protection from fall
Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of💶 risk.
[1][2][3] These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear.
[1] Extreme tourism overlaps💶 with extreme sport.
The two share the same main attraction, "adrenaline rush" caused by an element of risk, and differ mostly💶 in the degree of engagement and professionalism.
Definition [ edit ]
The definition of extreme sports is not exact and the origin💶 of the terms is unclear, but it gained popularity in the 1990s when it was picked up by marketing companies💶 to promote the X Games and when the Extreme Sports Channel and Extreme International launched.
More recently, the commonly used definition💶 from research is "a competitive (comparison or self-evaluative) activity within which the participant is subjected to natural or unusual physical💶 and mental challenges such as speed, height, depth or natural forces and where fast and accurate cognitive perceptual processing may💶 be required for a successful outcome" by Dr.
Rhonda Cohen (2012).[4][5]
While the use of the term "extreme sport" has spread everywhere💶 to describe a multitude of different activities, exactly which sports are considered 'extreme' is debatable.
There are, however, several characteristics common💶 to most extreme sports.
[6] While they are not the exclusive domain of youth, extreme sports tend to have a younger-than-average💶 target demographic.
Extreme sports are also rarely sanctioned by schools for their physical education curriculum.
[7] Extreme sports tend to be more💶 solitary than many of the popular traditional sports[8] (rafting and paintballing are notable exceptions, as they are done in teams).
Activities💶 categorized by media as extreme sports differ from traditional sports due to the higher number of inherently uncontrollable variables.
These environmental💶 variables are frequently weather and terrain related, including wind, snow, water and mountains.
Because these natural phenomena cannot be controlled, they💶 inevitably affect the outcome of the given activity or event.
In a traditional sporting event, athletes compete against each other under💶 controlled circumstances.
While it is possible to create a controlled sporting event such as X Games, there are environmental variables that💶 cannot be held constant for all athletes.
Examples include changing snow conditions for snowboarders, rock and ice quality for climbers, and💶 wave height and shape for surfers.
Whilst traditional sporting judgment criteria may be adopted when assessing performance (distance, time, score, etc.
),💶 extreme sports performers are often evaluated on more subjective and aesthetic criteria.
[9] This results in a tendency to reject unified💶 judging methods, with different sports employing their own ideals[10] and indeed having the ability to evolve their assessment standards with💶 new trends or developments in the sports.
Classification [ edit ]
While the exact definition and what is included as extreme sport💶 is debatable, some attempted to make classification for extreme sports.[11]
One argument is that to qualify as an "extreme sport" both💶 expression terms need to be fulfilled;
" sport ": The participant has to dispose of considerable skill and/or physical ability to💶 avoid poor execution of the activity ;
": The participant has to dispose of considerable skill and/or physical ability to avoid💶 ; "extreme": The poor execution of the activity has to result in considerable risk of serious physical harm to the💶 participant;
Along this definition, being a passenger in a canyon jet boat ride will not fulfill the requirements as the skill💶 required pertains to the pilot, not the passengers.
"Thrill seeking" might be a more suitable qualification than "extreme sport" or "action💶 sport" in these cases.
[citation needed]History [ edit ]
The origin of the divergence of the term "extreme sports" from "sports" may💶 date to the 1950s in the appearance of a phrase usually, but wrongly, attributed to Ernest Hemingway.[12] The phrase is;
There💶 are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.
The implication of the phrase was💶 that the word "sport" defined an activity in which one might be killed, other activities being termed "games.
" The phrase💶 may have been invented by either writer Barnaby Conrad or automotive author Ken Purdy.[12]
The Dangerous Sports Club of Oxford University,💶 England was founded by David Kirke, Chris Baker, Ed Hulton and Alan Weston.
They first came to wide public attention by💶 inventing modern day bungee jumping, by making the first modern jumps on 1 April 1979, from the Clifton Suspension Bridge,💶 Bristol, England.
They followed the Clifton Bridge effort with a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California (including💶 the first female bungee jump by Jane Wilmot), and with a televised leap from the Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge in💶 Colorado, sponsored by and televised on the popular American television program That's Incredible! Bungee jumping was treated as a novelty💶 for a few years, then became a craze for young people, and is now an established industry for thrill seekers.
The💶 Club also pioneered a surrealist form of skiing, holding three events at St.
Moritz, Switzerland, in which competitors were required to💶 devise a sculpture mounted on skis and ride it down a mountain.
The event reached its limits when the Club arrived💶 in St.
Moritz with a London double-decker bus, wanting to send it down the ski slopes, and the Swiss resort managers💶 refused.
Other Club activities included expedition hang gliding from active volcanoes; the launching of giant (20 m) plastic spheres with pilots💶 suspended in the centre (zorbing); microlight flying; and BASE jumping (in the early days of this sport).
In recent decades the💶 term extreme sport was further promoted after the Extreme Sports Channel, Extremesportscompany.
com launched and then the X Games, a multi-sport💶 event was created and developed by ESPN.
[13][14] The first X Games (known as 1995 Extreme Games) were held in Newport,💶 Providence, Mount Snow, and Vermont in the United States.[15][16]
Certain extreme sports clearly trace back to other extreme sports, or combinations💶 thereof.
For example, windsurfing was conceived as a result of efforts to equip a surfboard with a sailing boat's propulsion system💶 (mast and sail).
Kitesurfing on the other hand was conceived by combining the propulsion system of kite buggying (a parafoil) with💶 the bi-directional boards used for wakeboarding.
Wakeboarding is in turn derived from snowboarding and waterskiing.
Marketing [ edit ]
Snowboarder drops off a💶 cornice.
Some contend[17] that the distinction between an extreme sport and a conventional one has as much to do with marketing💶 as with the level of danger involved or the adrenaline generated.
For example, rugby union is both dangerous and adrenaline-inducing but💶 is not considered an extreme sport due to its traditional image, and because it does not involve high speed or💶 an intention to perform stunts (the aesthetic criteria mentioned above) and also it does not have changing environmental variables for💶 the athletes.
Motivation [ edit ]
A feature of such activities in the view of some is their alleged capacity to induce💶 an adrenaline rush in participants.
[18] However, the medical view is that the rush or high associated with the activity is💶 not due to adrenaline being released as a response to fear, but due to increased levels of dopamine, endorphins and💶 serotonin because of the high level of physical exertion.
[19] Furthermore, recent studies suggest that the link to adrenaline and 'true'💶 extreme sports is tentative.
[20][21] Brymer and Gray's study defined 'true' extreme sports as a leisure or recreation activity where the💶 most likely outcome of a mismanaged accident or mistake was death.
This definition was designed to separate the marketing hype from💶 the activity.
Wingsuit flying is a recent activity.
Eric Brymer[22] also found that the potential of various extraordinary human experiences, many of💶 which parallel those found in activities such as meditation, was an important part of the extreme sport experience.
Those experiences put💶 the participants outside their comfort zone and are often done in conjunction with adventure travel.
Some of the sports have existed💶 for decades and their proponents span generations, some going on to become well known personalities.
Rock climbing and ice climbing have💶 spawned publicly recognizable names such as Edmund Hillary, Chris Bonington, Wolfgang Güllich and more recently Joe Simpson.
Another example is surfing,💶 invented centuries ago by the inhabitants of Polynesia, it will become national sport of Hawaii.[23]
Disabled people participate in extreme sports.
Nonprofit💶 organizations such as Adaptive Action Sports seek to increase awareness of the participation in action sports by members of the💶 disabled community, as well as increase access to the adaptive technologies that make participation possible and to competitions such as💶 The X Games.
[promotion?][24][25]
Mortality, health, and thrill [ edit ]
Extreme sports may be perceived as extremely dangerous, conducive to fatalities, near-fatalities💶 and other serious injuries.
The perceived risk in an extreme sport has been considered a somewhat necessary part of its appeal,[26]💶 which is partially a result of pressure for athletes to make more money and provide maximum entertainment.[27]
While attempting a forward💶 loop in overpowered storm conditions off the coast of Cantabria, Spain, a windsurfer jumping waves gets catapulted into a high💶 double flip.
Extreme sports is a sub-category of sports that are described as any kind of sport "of a character or💶 kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average".
[28] These kinds of sports often carry out the potential risk of serious💶 and permanent physical injury and even death.
[29] However, these sports also have the potential to produce drastic benefits on mental💶 and physical health and provide opportunity for individuals to engage fully with life.[21]
Extreme sports trigger the release of the hormone💶 adrenaline, which can facilitate performance of stunts.
[30] It is believed that the implementation of extreme sports on mental health patients💶 improves their perspective and recognition of aspects of life.[29]
In outdoor adventure sports, participants get to experience the emotion of intense💶 thrill, usually associated with the extreme sports.
[31] Even though some extreme sports present a higher level of risk, people still💶 choose to embark in the experience of extreme sports for the sake of the adrenaline.
According to Sigmund Freud, we have💶 an instinctual 'death wish', which is a subconscious inbuilt desire to destroy ourselves, proving that in the seek for the💶 thrill, danger is considered pleasurable.[32]
List of extreme and adventure sports [ edit ]
Adventure sports [ edit ]See also [ edit💶 ]
