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Do you consider yourself a thrill-seeker? Do you crave the adrenaline rush that comes with doing something risky? Maybe one of these deadly sports could be your next adventure...
White Water Rafting
Whitewater rafting is when you take a raft into rushing, rapid waterways that are so turbulent that they appear to be white. Simple enough, right? People have been doing this for hundreds of years, but it wasn't until recent years that this sport took off. Whitewater rafting is exhilarating, accessible, and yes—extremely dangerous.
Tread Lightly, or Not at All
We don't mean to dissuade all of those whitewater rafter wannabes out there, but between 2006 and 2017, more than 500 people across the globe lost their lives while whitewater rafting. That doesn't count the hundreds of broken bones, thousands of close calls, and countless ruined family vacations because of it.
American Football
Football has gotten itself into trouble over the years. CTE is also extremely common in this sport. Head and neck injuries plague the entire NFL and all the lower leagues. People enter professional football and leave the sport as a different person. That's just part of the game.
It's Not Just In Your Head
Football players regularly suffer strains, broken bones, muscle, ligament, and tendon tears, and other permanent problems. If you were ever a football player and you walked away from the game without sustaining a single injury, you are in the minority. About 33 individuals died from football injuries between 2000 and 2016. As the league gets more powerful and the players get bigger, we might see more deaths unless some rule changes are made.
Gymnastics
Olympic professionals have a way to make gymnastics look like it's easy and safe. That's because they have trained their entire lives and became the most elite athletes in the sport. Obviously, they're going to make it look easy. Gymnasts, even at the highest level, are more prone to serious injuries than many other sports.
Flying From a High Trapeze With Ease
Gymnasts are regularly subjected to a multitude of injuries that include but are not limited to bruises, broken bones, paralysis, concussions, and death. Roughly 20 people have died from gymnastics-related events in the past few decades.
Cheerleading
Wait, cheerleading? Seriously? Well, when you consider the physical demands to make a competition cheer routine successful, one could start drawing some conclusions. These actions include flips, lifts, stacking, and transitions that would make the average athlete quake in their boots.
Say It Ain't So
Think about how high cheerleaders get tossed in the air when you watch their routines on television. Statistically speaking, there are going to be some mistakes from time to time. Roughly 30,000 cheerleaders are hospitalized because of their injuries per year. On average, 10 or so cheerleaders die from cheer-related activities annually.
Skiing
People don't talk about how frequently skiers get hurt. Don't let this dissuade you from wanting to go on that winter trip to Alaska. Just remember to wear a helmet, don't put yourself in a position where you could get seriously hurt, and you'll be just fine.
Falling at Breakneck Speeds
Skiers regularly get hospitalized for crashing into trees and other skiers, getting trapped in avalanches, collapsing into snowbanks, and other falling related situations. Last year, 42 skiers died because of their skiing accidents. While this doesn't make skiing even close to the most dangerous sport out there, it's cause for concern.
Polo
Polo is typically a sport that is reserved for the elite. However, it is also an extraordinarily dangerous sport, which seems to counter the comfortable lifestyles of the wealthy. Everyone needs a little excitement in their lives, right?
Factoring It All Together
Consider the nature of polo itself. People ride horses, which are enormous animals over which they do not have complete control, to smack a tiny, hard ball with a hammer on a giant stick. Yeah, nothing can go wrong here. There haven't been many statistics covering the quantifiable danger of polo, but this sport is certainly dangerous.
Rugby
So you're trying to tell me that giant, muscular men sprinting at one another to try and tackle another person to the ground without any protective equipment is dangerous? Well, actually, yeah...
Consider the Factors
Most serious rugby injuries are either broken bones, paralysis, concussions, spinal damage, and in some cases, death. Roughly 1/4 of rugby players get injured during their season, and, 12 rugby players have died in the past decade due to rugby-related injuries. Protect ya' neck, fellas.
Jai Alai
Jai Alai (pronounced: high-lie) has become more and more obscure over the past decade. This is largely in part because the sport is insanely dangerous and doesn't tend to fly with American audiences. The other part is that American audiences practically control the sports world and what the rest of the Earth views, so there's that.
The Nature of the Game
Evidently, only deaths that have occurred because of Jai Ali were all instantaneous. When a player is hit square in the head by a ball that's traveling upwards of 200 miles per hour, their brain just stops functioning. This has only happened a handful of times over the past few years, but for some reason, Jai Ali players just won't wear facial protection. Go figure.
Hunting
If you think about it, it's pretty easy to figure out why hunters die all the time. The whole predication of the sport (in modern years) revolves around walking through the woods with a loaded weapon and potentially shooting anything that moves. All too frequently, the thing that moves just happens to end up being a person.
Taking Preventative Measures
Hunters stress the importance of learning gun safety and practicing the sport as safely as humanly possible. You're supposed to wear alert orange on top of your camo so other hunters can spot you. However, roughly 75 hunters die per year because of hunting accidents caused by their own or someone else's gun.
Skydiving
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet might be a little dangerous. However, as technology has progressed, skydiving injuries have gone down massively. The main causes of skydiving accidents continue to be DIY equipment, human error, and lack of preparedness.
You Know What You're Getting Yourself Into
Roughly 85% of skydiving injuries occur while landing (actually 100% of them do, but the causes aren't necessarily due to improper landings). Broken bones are the most common injury, but people regularly walk away with concussions, muscle tears, and sometimes not at all. There are roughly 25 skydiving deaths over the course of a typical year.
Baseball
It wouldn't be America's pastime if it wasn't inherently dangerous. Baseball is riddled with regular injuries that can be caused by long term repetitive motion or blunt force trauma. Baseballs are hard and they travel extremely fast when they come off of a bat. If you get hit, you're probably going to have a bad time.
It's Up There
While baseball is by far not the most dangerous sport out there, people get hurt quite often. Despite this, has been one singular death attributed to baseball over the course of its existence. A player was struck with a pitch and he died instantly. Just know that you're much more likely to get badly injured than killed, for the record.
Boxing
You are going to get punched in the face, over and over, every single day you decide to box. Literally—part of the game is accepting blows to the head. So, it makes sense that boxing ended up on this list.
Few Deaths, Multiple Devastating Injuries
While only 500 boxers have died over the course of the organized sport's existence (think back to when people figured out that they could punch each other), countless boxers suffer from serious long term injuries. Brain damage is one of the most common injuries in boxers, and the establishment of CTE is borderline inevitable in boxers that have been participating in the sport for their entire lives.
Downhill Mountain Biking
Evidently, riding uphill isn't much of a problem. Mountain bikers can travel up to 70 miles per hour straight down a mountainside. Roots, rocks, hikers, and other hard-to-miss obstacles could stand in their way, and they wouldn't know until it was too late. Every crash is life-threatening, or at least extremely painful.
Broken Bikes, Bones and Catching a Ride Home
Fortunately, there have only been a few deaths in the mountain biking community. However, that community is extremely small and it is assumed that 1 in 10 of all riders will suffer a serious injury at some point in their career. Please wear a helmet.
Skateboarding
It's not surprising that skateboarding is a dangerous, if not deadly activity. Depending on the level of intensity with which you partake in the sport, your insurance may go up. Fortunately, only the most experienced skaters tend to try the big stuff, but they get hurt all of the time, too.
WEAR A HELMET
For some reason, skateboarders tend to not wear protective equipment while they skate. Whether this is either a cultural or economic issue, this is a major problem that leads to about 40 deaths per year. Skateboarding is serious stuff. If you research Tony Hawk's medical history, you'll discover why we put skateboarding on this list.
Mixed Martial Arts
MMA doesn't just look brutal, it IS brutal. People get knocked out, broken bones, and punches straight to the face. Not having helmets on is part of the game, so that's how you know it can get ugly.
Punching and Kicking
The most common injuries in MMA are facial lacerations (from toenails and blunt force) and concussions. Concussions are the largest cause for concern; they're the silent killer. Only three people have died due to MMA in the past 20 years, but that's only because they have trained medical staff ready to jump in at a moment's notice.
Swimming
Swimming isn't just for Olympic pools. Distance swimmers often hop into the freezing ocean or questionable lakes. Sometimes people find that they have pushed themselves to their limit and drown. Not much can be done about it if you're in the middle of a large body of water completely alone.
The Risk of Drowning
Drowning kills roughly 3,500 people per year. Around two in every 100,000 people will drown at some point (not necessarily resulting in death). We recommend that you swim near a lifeguard at all times, and if you're feeling up to doing something a bit more dangerous, try to bring a buddy with you.
BMX
Bicycle motocross (BMX) can pose a serious threat to those who attempt the sport. The huge jumps and wild speeds in the sport regularly injure and kill riders annually. If you're not feeling up to the challenge, there is no shame in backing down.
Taking it to the Edge
BMX injuries can range from shattered collarbones to fractured spinal cords. Deaths are rare in the sport, but lots of riders do not wear helmets or any protective gear. Sustaining multiple injuries can diminish anyone's quality of life.
Hang Gliding
Just like skydiving, this one is a no-brainer. The likelihood of dying in a hang gliding accident is around 1 in 560. That's an absurdly high number compared to most other sports. But, when you think about it, if you make a mistake, there is only ground beneath you.
Do Your Homework First
If you're going to go hang gliding, just make sure that you know what you're doing, or you go with a trained professional. We recommend you do both. Hang gliding-related deaths are not necessarily recorded as being connected to hang gliding as a sport, so it's hard to keep track of them. Let's just say, 1 in 560 people who attempt to hang glide will die.
Horseback Riding
Horses are terrifying in general—just throwing that out there before we factor in the people who ride them. Horses are unstoppable thousand-pound death machines that are way more difficult to control than, say, a car. You can't wear a reliable seatbelt here either. It's just you, the horse, and the ground.
Crunching the Numbers
Death by horseback isn't outrageously common, but it's definitely a possibility that you need to factor in every time you hop onto a horse. If you get bucked off of your horse, you will most likely get trampled, which will probably kill you. Horses kill upwards of 100 people per year. Also, never look them in the eye.
Steep Creeking
You probably haven't heard of this sport, but it's really serious and it's starting to gain in popularity. Steep creeking is when you take a kayak on a rushing river that typically has some small waterfalls or some steep declines. People can get locked into their kayaks when they flip them, which can cause drowning, concussions, broken bones, and sometimes just instant death.
Is the Risk Worth the Gain?
Drowning is the most common killer among kayaking communities. Typically, the kayaker would get flipped over and slammed into a rock, knocking them out and potentially drowning them. Don't let that fact dissuade you though, it's important to make up your own mind about these kinds of things. Only 15 people die due to kayaking per year, so your chance of death is pretty low. Just don't do anything too gnarly.
Powerboat Racing
For starters, this sport is pretty inaccessible. So, the vast majority of individuals that end up getting hurt or killed are the world's top-trained professionals. This sport is inherently dangerous based on the variables that these boats have to encounter while on the water. One wrong turn, one sharp sidewind, and your career could end in flames.
Pick Your Poison
Traditionally, artificial environments are the safest for powerboat drivers to compete in. Offshore powerboating is the most dangerous branch of the sport, seeing as at least one individual has died per year because of it. Make sure you wear a lifejacket.
Bull Riding
Bull riding is one of those sports that people just don't really understand why we, as human beings, have any desire to do. The goal of this sport is to get on top of an angry bull without a saddle and with barely any protective equipment and hang on for as long as possible. By the way, the bull doesn't give up. It will shake you off its back, and when it does, you have to get out of there.
Facing the Facts
If you willingly decide to get onto a bull, you need to know that you're risking concussions, broken bones, whiplash, trauma, and possibly death. Roughly three bull riders die annually, but hundreds get seriously injured per year. Bullriding is up there as one of the most deadly sports.
Mountain Climbing
Mountain climbing, whether you're doing it the traditional way or as a "free" climber, is inherently dangerous. But, the danger isn't in the activity itself, the danger lays in the human error or mechanical malfunctioning that one could experience while ascending a rock face. There's only air between you and the ground, and if your carabiner fails, it's game over.
Assuming the Risks
When you fall to some earlier placed gear, there could be ten or more feet of dead space beneath you. If you fall from such a height and swing (or "whip" as climbers call it) into the rock, you might get pretty injured. But, if your equipment fails or your belayer drops you altogether, it's probably the end for you. Over 24 climbers died in the year 2000 alone, and while technology has improved and rock climbers have become more knowledgeable and preventative, it's still pretty dangerous to be up that high.
Luging
Luge is one of those sports that nobody really understands how people even get into it. Like, have you ever seen a luge course that was accessible to the public? If there was one, people would probably be dying at a much more alarming rate than they have been.
The Science Behind It
Essentially, luge is just extreme sledding. You lay on a sled and travel down a solid ice course at speeds upwards of 90mph. You can, and theoretically should break a few bones while doing it. There hasn't been a confirmed number of deaths caused by luge, but there have been 407 luge injuries in the past seven years.
Auto Racing
Racing is clearly one of the most deadly sports out there. These cars travel upwards of 160mph with a person on the inside. Although it doesn't feel like it, when you are inside a car, you are also traveling at the speed that the car is traveling. So, any sudden stops or accidents will potentially crush your ribcage, or worse.
That's a Strange Fact
Believe it or not, the vast majority of auto racing-related injuries aren't actually reflected onto the driver. The road crew takes the brunt of the punishment. Over 520 people have died from auto racing in the past 25 years. That's super nervewracking.
Freediving
Most people don't really know about freediving when compared to its more popular counterpart, scuba diving. Suba divers use oxygen tanks and other gear to assist them with breathing underwater, freedivers do not use any respiratory gear. If you're to get hurt, stuck, or turned around in any way while freediving, you very well might drown.
It's Part of the Job
Freediving is extremely dangerous, but to some, freediving is much more fun than scuba diving because you feel like you're actually part of the environment. There have been 417 recorded freediving accidents, and 308 of them have resulted in death. That's a pretty wide margin.
Motorcycle Racing
Motorcycles are extremely dangerous as is, and that's without even factoring in the racing part. The bikes don't really offer you any protection from the outside world or the other racers. There are no seatbelts and no airbags. It's just you, the bike, and the road.
It's Just As Dangerous As You Would Imagine
Motorcycle racers take their lives into their own hands when they hop on the track. For example, just one singular motorcycle racing event (The Isle of Man TT) has claimed over 200 lives in the past 30 years. If that dissuades you from becoming a motorcycle racer, you're welcome.
Parkour
Have you ever watched those POV YouTube videos of people running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, sometimes doing flips? Yeah, that's parkour. It's just as scary as it looks, and if you make even the tiniest mistake, you could very well kiss your pretty little life goodbye.
Dipping and Diving
While it is tempting to try to replicate what you see those wild free-runners doing, you should probably just lace your trainers up and go for a leisurely jog instead. These individuals are highly trained in both freerunning and gymnastics, typically, and any normal person attempting to try extreme parkour should be extra careful. People regularly break their legs, spines, and arms, get concussions, sometimes even die.
Big-Wave Surfing
Gliding around at the bottom of a 100-foot wall of water doesn't sound particularly safe. But, when you factor in the rocks and environmental hazards that lay beneath the ocean where big wave surfing is possible, then you've got to consider that there are more dangers than just the water crushing you. Roughly 10 people die from big wave surfing per year, and you should not attempt it.
High-Altitude Mountain Climbing
This is a whole different beast compared to traditional mountain climbing. When you attempt to summit peaks like Everest and K2, you need to bring supplemental oxygen to sustain yourself so you don't pass out from altitude sickness. Hundreds of individuals have died while trying to climb Everest alone. Make sure you know what you're getting into before you give one of these summits a shot.
Cliff Jumping
Cliff jumping would be relatively safe if it weren't for how accessible it is and how it's a breeding ground for people trying to one-up each other with how dangerous/extreme the stunts they conduct can be. Dozens of people die per year, but thousands of broken bones, concussions, and air-lifts to the hospital are also expected annually.
BASE Jumping
BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth. These are the structures that BASE jumpers seek to, well, jump off of. BASE jumping was previously the most dangerous sport of all time, but federal and state laws have dissuaded plenty of people from wanting to give it a shot. Still, about 15 people die because of it annually.
Heli-Skiing
Heli-skiing is the act of dropping off of a helicopter to reach areas that were previously untouched by other skiers. However, because these locations are so high up and untouched, they're usually high-probability avalanche zones. Roughly 100 skiers lose their lives because of heli-skiing every year.
Cave Diving
If you thought that scuba diving was dangerous on its own, try diving inside of a cave. The potential dangers nearly triple when entering a cave underwater. Loose sediment might clog your gear, you might run out of oxygen and be too far in to return, or, in a worst-case scenario, the cave might even collapse on you. Roughly three to eight people die from cave diving per year.
Free Solo Climbing
Although the movie Free Solo should have dissuaded its audience from wanting to try to climb any huge structure without ropes, there has been a boom of free soloing since then. A few dozen climbers die annually from attempting to free solo different climbs, That does not include the hundreds that irreversibly injured because of failed attempts.
Wingsuit Flying
Wingsuit flying (or squirrel suit flying) is similar to BASE jumping (meaning that you can combine the two) is an insanely deadly thing to do. You literally have to trust your body tension with your entire life. If you fail while on a wingsuit, that's probably the end for you. There is no room for an additional parachute, and some of the time, wingsuiters don't even deploy their parachutes.
Here's the #1
Wingsuiting is, by far, the most dangerous sport on this list. Roughly 1 in 60 wingsuit trips end in death. That being said, the death is practically instant, so it might not be THAT terrible of a way to go out. We suggest that if you're going to try and fly in a wingsuit, you should probably get your affairs sorted first.