Any sport has the potential to be hazardous. A bowling ball can fall and strike your foot. While wandering down the fairway, a golf ball could strike you. However, some sports are hazardous by their inherent nature. Accepting that there is a decent risk you will get potentially harm injured…or even murdered is the price you pay to play.
It’s challenging to compile a reliable list of the world’s most dangerous sports because statistical data is dispersed across the internet and there is no database to consolidate everything for a long enough time. And how do you even begin to define danger?
Then there is the riskiest sport of them all—a sport in which competitors had to take every possible risk.
American Football
Even though it may be difficult to imagine, football is one of those very deadly games. Because it happens so frequently, most of us no longer perceive it as deadly, yet if you add up all the people who have been killed playing American football throughout the years, you’ll see what I mean.
Football used to be considerably riskier than it is now, with scores of fatalities occurring during early games. Due to the lack of protective equipment in comparison to what is available now, head-to-head collisions were frequently to blame for the majority of fatalities and permanently disabling injuries. However, football still regularly results in shattered bones, neck and brain injuries, as well as several additional concussions.
Field Hockey
Field hockey isn’t a contact sport according to the rules. However, collisions with other players, the sticks, or the ball itself frequently result in player injuries. Despite the fact that participants wear mouth guards and eye protection, injuries are still common in this sport.
Despite the eye and mouth protection already described, it is insufficient to stop all facial injuries, such as broken teeth and concussion. Players getting struck by a hockey stick or ball cause around 90 percent of all face and head injuries. Additionally, the activity causes severe damage to players’ lower backs, knees, and leg muscles due to the constant running and accidental contact. Ankle sprains account for more than 15 percentage points of injuries sustained in this sport.
Bull Riding
This type of rodeo activity requires the rider to cling to a bull as long as they can while the animal tries to buck them off. We become anxious just thinking about mounting a 1000-kg bull, so I assume I don’t need to elaborate much about the dangers involved in the sport itself. It is regarded as being one of the riskiest sports in the world, with concussion and injuries to the neck, head, and face making up the majority of accidents.
Bull riding might not have been considered an extreme activity, but it is undoubtedly risky. According to some bull riders, you can either leave the arena on your own two feet or board an ambulance or hearse for your next ride. This is due to the fact that one of those bulls, which can weigh up to 1800 pounds, has the power to figuratively crush a fallen rider. And the injuries are easy to picture.
Rugby
There will undoubtedly be horrifying injuries when 15 strong players from each team smash into one another for 80 minutes. Players are forced to carry the ball down the field while wearing only spiked boots and a mouth guard for protection.
Rugby suffers its fair share of casualties due to the lack of protective equipment compared to American football and the collision of two 13-player teams, resulting in numerous broken bones, torn ligaments, dislocated shoulders, and more than a dozen fatal player accidents after 2001.
Over a dozen pro rugby players have died as a result of collisions and hard tackles since 2001. It is hardly unexpected that roughly 1 in 4 sportsmen will sustain an injury during the course of the season, and it is now uncommon to attend a game without witnessing a player leave the field hurt.
Free Diving
Due to its many risks, scuba diving is regarded as being riskier than contact sports, but there are a few follow precedents that are even riskier. One of them is free diving.
This sport involves the deepest feasible dives without the use of scuba diving’s breathing apparatus or gas. Freediving is undoubtedly beautiful and clean because it involves diving without any equipment in what is, for humans, the most unnatural environment—often deep underwater—but it also has a cost. There were 417 reported freediving accidents from 2006 and 2011, 308 of which were fatal.
Big Wave Surfing
Surfing masters who practise big wave surfing paddle into it or are towed onto waves that are at least 20 feet tall. Riding a frightening 100-foot wave for $100,000 is the most sought-after title.
Drowning, being dragged into the sea by the current, or even being slammed against the submerged rocks are some of the sport’s worst risks.Even in typical surf conditions, it is possible to get hit by the surfboard.
Skiing and Snowboarding
Skiing and snowboarding both require a high level of fitness and skill to learn the proper techniques for descending the mountain without getting hurt. Whatever their level of talent, athletes run a very real risk of getting hurt as they careen downward.
One in five of these accidents involves the head, frequently as a result of a skier or snowboarder colliding with a tree or falling to the ground. Of those, 22% became unconscious or suffered from a concussion, frequently as a result of not wearing a helmet.
