Britannica Educational Publishing - Extreme Sports and Their Greatest Competitors

Published in 2015 by Britannica Educational Publishing (a trademark of Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.) in association with The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

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Copyright 2015 by Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.

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First Edition

Britannica Educational Publishing

J. E. Luebering: Director, Core Reference Group

Anthony L. Green: Editor, Comptons by Britannica

Rosen Publishing

Hope Lourie Killcoyne: Executive Editor

Additional content supplied by Dan Harmon

Nelson S: Art Director

Nicole Russo: Designer

Cindy Reiman: Photography Manager

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Extreme sports and their greatest competitors/edited by Hope Lourie Killcoyne.First Edition.

pages cm.(Inside Sports)

Distributed exclusively by Rosen PublishingT.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Audience: Grades: 512.

ISBN 978-1-6227-5597-4 (eBook)

1. Extreme sportsHistoryJuvenile literature. 2. AthletesRating of.

GV749.7.E987 2015

796.046dc23

On the cover, page 3: Shaun White. Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images

Pages 6-7 iStockphoto.com/dell640; pp. 15, 20, 21, 32, 34, 35, 49, 50, 68 iStockphoto.com/kodachrome25; pp. 69-77 iStockphoto.com/Jason Lugo; interior pages background image iStockphoto.com/thinair28

CONTENTS

W hat makes a sport extreme? Its a tricky question. Most sports, even those that call for simple running and swimming skills, entail certain risks. At the same time, not all dangerous forms of recreation qualify as sports. Bungee jumping, for instance, requires lots of nerve but no particular skill.

Most extreme sports involve practiced skills and competitions with comparatively high risks of injury. In many of these alternative sports, as theyre sometimes called, high speed accounts for the risks. Examples include freestyle skiing, street luge, skateboarding, snowboarding, in-line roller skating, BMX, and motocross. Racing and acrobatic competitions for motorcycles and snowmobiles usually are classified as extreme. The definition can also include such pursuits as rock climbing and skydiving.

Many of todays extreme sports were on the fringe of serious athletic competition until the 1990s. Surfers, skateboarders, parachutists, and rock climbers were admired and respected for their skills. However, their activities were considered recreation, not sport.

Christi Brown, seen here smiling at about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above Gardiner, N.Y., on July 26, 2014, has been skydiving since 2012. Her arms are positioned in a way she says helps stabilize her sitfly. After leaving the aircraft, she free-falls for about sixty seconds, then parachutes.

To many people, the term extreme sports is associated with the X Games. This festival of high-risk, alternative competitions was introduced in 1995 by the cable network ESPN. Televised X Games have become enormously popular. Some of the sports featured in the early X Games have been added to the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

But neither the X Games nor the Olympics encompass all of the sports that are considered extreme. Most everyone would agree that skydiving from a height of 24 miles (39 kilometers) is also extreme. So is spending a week exploring a pitch-black cave 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) beneath the surface of the earth.

The definition of extreme sports is changing and expanding year by year. Adventurous athletes constantly push the envelope. They look for riskier challenges to conquer and more clever ways to conquer them. Once they conquer themand their rivals copy and then exceed what the originators have donethose feats become less extraordinary. In time, what once was pushing the envelope produces only yawns. Waterskiing, for example, was viewed as a daredevil phenomenon when it was invented in 1922. Today, the greatest hazard posed by waterskiing may be the fact that so many people are doing it, congesting lakes.

Along with profiles of notable competitors, this book breaks down extreme sports according to where they take place: from the sky and cliffs to snowy slopes; on streets, ramps, racetracks, and in arenas; and in caves, cragged canyons, and the deep blue sea.

Many of the extreme sports described here share a unique subculture that separates them from traditional team sports. It is a youth-oriented culture that has embraced new music and fashion and emphasizes individual creativity. Energetic young people are drawn to these sports because they offer individual freedom. At their own pace, aspiring athletes can learn, practice, progress, and ultimately excel. They can practice and perform alone or, when they want, with friends. Discipline and training are demanded, but they are self-imposed and self-paced.

However, readers who are interested in taking up these sports must not underestimate the danger. Loss of balance on a skateboard or skis can result in a life-changing injury for a novice. Failure to heed the weather can leave a caver or canyon explorer trapped, at the mercy of swiftly flooding waters. Read on, and learn more about the excitementand the perilsof extreme sports.

S ome risk takers love the challenge of clawing upward at a snails pace. Others find their thrills plunging downward at incredible speeds. Hugging a rock face, skiing or snowboarding down a mountain slope, and hurtling from heights are all means of exhilaration. Many of these sports can be enjoyed by beginners. They also can be taken to extremes.

S NOWBOARDING

Snowboarders sometimes call it riding the mountains. Snowboarding combines techniques of skiing, skateboarding, and surfing.

Chinese snowboarder Shuang Li started snowboarding competitively in 2008 at age 16. Here she is in the Womens Half-Pipe Qualification at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. lurii Osadchi/Shutterstock.com

Experimenters during the 1960s came up with the idea of surfing on snow. The crude boards they originally used have been perfected. Basically, a snowboard is like an extra-large skateboard without wheels. Bindings secure the riders boots to the board, and an ankle leash keeps the board attached when the rider falls. On average, a snowboard is about 5 feet (150 centimeters) long and 10 inches (25 cm) wide. Some boards are narrower in the middle, which makes them easier to turn. Unlike snow skiers, snowboarders use no poles.