Other / Alsy / 10 April 2009 / Leave a comment

If you think cheerleading is child's play compared to the american football that takes centre stage to it, think again. Or that cave diving is a relaxing weekend hobby, think yet again. Alister Morgan talks us through five sports that you shouldn't take up unless you don't mind getting hurt.

Compiling a list of the world's most dangerous sports wasn't hazardous but selecting only five was tough. Mixing sport and personal danger is hardly new but was previously the pursuit of the wealthy. Working folk had little time for leisure but the upper classes (perhaps inspired by the Eton Wall game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSdlWtk1grI) were driven to invent increasingly dangerous sporting pursuits.

Thankfully we now have a plethora of dangerous sports to choose from and pots of money aren't always necessary. A simple disregard for personal safety will suffice with an excellent living available for keeping mind and body healthy while displaying a sponsor's logo.

Honourable danger mentions have to go to fishing and surfing where competitors battle killer waves and occasional sharks. Cheese Rolling and Bull Running combine danger and stupidity quite beautifully but if you're looking for fatalities consider the serene pursuits of golf and lawn bowls. Clearly both are attractive to the Grim Reaper with over 4,000 golfing deaths estimated due to lightning strikes, wayward drives and a multitude of other reasons. Bowls claims an even higher death toll but that may have something to do with the average age of competitors hovering around the 150-years-old mark. The sports listed below have a lower body count but they do require a little more competitive athleticism.

Motorsport Isle of Man TT

Speed really does kill if it has an engine and wheels. The Dakar Rally claimed 50 lives since 1979 (six in 1988 alone) but the Isle of Man TT boasts 225 deaths since 1907 suggesting that, four wheels bad, two wheels even worse. The race remains one of the world's most prestigious events with its distinctive time-trial format across narrow, twisting public roads. The shocking clip below illustrates the dangers more effectively than any words I could cobble together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nzq2GorVH4

Cheerleading

You heard right! No sport injures more women, with more than 20,000 serious injuries reported last year in the US alone. Statistically college cheerleaders are more likely to be hurt than the male athletes they support. Modern cheer routines are a heady mixture of choreographed acrobatics and dance. Problems usually occur when throws go wrong and the spinning cheerleader literally comes crashing down to earth. Check out the clip below for a graphic demonstration of the enduring dangers of gravity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4KjUF9MVtw&NR=1

Rugby

We all know it and we all love it. If you're looking for violent human contact with plenty of blood, sweat and broken bones then rugby has it all. Scientists confirm that some on-field tackles are akin to car crash impacts... perhaps seatbelts are required?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz0_An6RH5k&NR=1

Base Jumping

Skydiving is dangerous but the BASE variation is much worse with around 180 deaths since the late seventies. BASE is an acronym for Building, Antenna, Span & Earth. It involves parachuting from fixed points (as opposed to aircraft) until each category are completed. Smaller man-made structures, restricted landing areas and reduced freefall time make BASE jumping incredibly dangerous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBbC90aZmMA&feature=related

Cave Diving

The technical skill, knowledge and physical strength required to stay alive makes this the scariest of them all. Complete darkness and maze-like cavernous hardly help either making divers susceptible to air loss, hypothermia, Co2 poisoning, decompression and failure of the spinal cord, lungs and brain. Unlike open-sea diving you cannot simply come up for air. More than 500 cave divers have died since 1960, a huge number when you consider the relatively small number of global divers compared to other sports. Cave diving is akin to swimming in the valley-of-the-shadow-of-death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUat8ey0r8E