Top 10 Injury-Prone Sports In The World

BASE Jump from Earth
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Are you the sporting type? It’s great if you are; there’s nothing like indulging in your favorite sport. Here are ten great, popular sports that are also the most injury-prone. We’ve also provided some basic statistics of the number of injuries reported due to these sports in a year.

10. Street Luging

Street luging involves rolling down busy highways while lying on elongated skateboard. There are no brakes, and the sportsperson is placed at just an inch from the road surface. Passing vehicles will perceive the skateboard as a puddle on the road, which increases the danger. Street luging is illegal in many countries in the world.

Injury statistics: About 5 to 15 people die or are badly injured every year while participating in street luging in each country where the sport is allowed.

09. Heliskiing

Heliskiing involves being helicoptered to high snowcaps, where sportspersons dive off on to virgin slopes wearing skis. This extreme sport causes many accidents and deaths every year, as many are trapped in avalanches, or are injured while falling on their skis.

Injury statistics: 45 to 50 people are seriously and sometimes fatally injured while heliskiing every year.

08. Big-Wave Surfing

Surfing can be great fun. Big wave surfing cranks a shaft a few degrees more by towing surfers into huge 50 feet high waves, powerful enough to crush small towns. The brute force of these monster waves can bury you under water, kill you outright or smash your head on submerged rocks. Every year thousands of people indulge in this extremely injury-prone sport.

Injury statistics: Big wave surfing causes at least 1 or 2 deaths every year, along with several minor to major injuries.

07. Bull Riding

Bull riding began as an offshoot of the western rodeo gymnastics. Every year, thousands of bull-riding enthusiasts regularly straddle 1800 pounds of furious bull flesh in an attempt to ride the bull. Needless to say, these riders are invariably thrown 10 feet into the air. If the bull rider doesn’t break their jaws, ribs or bones, there’s always the bull to cause injury.

Injury statistics: Approximately 10 to 15 people die every year while bull riding, while a countless number of people are seriously injured.

06. Bull Running

Bull running involves running in front of a bull that’s been let loose on narrow village streets. Called an encierro, bull running is a popular sport in Spain, more specifically in Pamplona. The bulls are run from off-site corrals to the bullring where bull riding and bullfighting sports are conducted.

Injury statistics: 200 and 300 people are injured every year, owing to head contusions.  A total of 14 people have been killed in Pamplona’s encierro in Pamplona alone since 1910.

05. Cheerleading

Cheerleading was only seen as a sideline activity during sport events such as football games. Now cheerleading is considered a sport in itself, and an injury-prone dangerous sport at that. Cheerleading accidents can cause broken legs and spinal injuries.

Injury statistics: Every year, over 20,000 women are injured in cheerleading events around the world.

04. Motorcycle Racing

Motorcycling is without doubt the most dangerous motorsport in the world. Motorcyclists are required to drive through rocks, trees, slime, snow, and gravel and so on while keeping a cool head, steady balance and maintaining extremely high speeds.

Injury statistics: In the Isle of Man TT event alone, over 220 deaths and innumerable injuries have occurred in the last 100 years. This is exclusive of the many deaths and injuries owing to professional and amateur motorcycling event accidents every year.

03. High Altitude Climbing

Mountaineering is fraught with dangers such as hypothermia, hypoxia, pneumonia, frostbite, injuries, drowning and many others. Even a minor injury can turn fatal if rescue is not timely. The glare from the Sun on those high slopes can blind climbers as well; losing eye protectors can cause blindness.

Injury statistics: One person out of every six mountain climbers dies every year. Out of the 1,300 people who’ve attempted to climb Mount Everest, 179 climbers have died. Every year, countless mountain climbers all over the world suffer minor to critical and sometimes fatal injuries while climbing.

02. BASE Jumping

BASE jumpers throw themselves off any high spot on earth, including tall buildings. These jumpers are protected only by a hand-deployed parachute. Many people meet with horrific accidents when they’re slammed against the building, cliff or peak from which they jump. Injuries are rampant and deaths are frequent. BASE-jumping is illegal in most countries.

Injury statistics: Between 5 and 15 BASE jumpers die each year, according to statistics published by the International PRO BASE Circuit. This is apart from several reported and unreported major to critical injuries this sport causes.

01. Cave Diving

Cave diving involves diving into unexplored, uncharted caves around the world. Cave divers are exposed to low-visibility conditions, freezing temperatures, cramped surroundings that cut off body circulation, lack of oxygen and so on. Though uncharted, underground caves do contain wild animals that can attack cave divers without warning. The risks are high while protection is slim. The National Speleological Society considers a cave dive as successful when the divers return in one piece.

Injury statistics: Since the 1960s, over 500 people have died and innumerable injuries have occurred owing to cave diving.

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4 thoughts on “Top 10 Injury-Prone Sports In The World”

  1. You forgot about BMX. Every BMX rider I know is injured maybe 40% of the year. It’s mainly injures to the lower half like Knees and Ankles.

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    • You make a good point, there are a number of other sports that could make the list.

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  2. How about those on X-Games?

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    • I would think many of the x-games would qualify.

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