Extreme sports (also called action sports and adventurous sports) is a popular term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent danger.

These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion, and highly specialized gear.

The definition of an extreme sport is not exact and the origin of the term is unclear, but it gained popularity in the 1990s when it was picked up by marketing companies to promote the X Games and when the Extreme Sports Channel and Extreme.com launched.

More recently, the commonly used definition from research is "a competitive (comparison or self-evaluative) activity within which the participant is subjected to natural or unusual physical and mental challenges such as speed, height, depth or natural forces and where fast and accurate cognitive perceptual processing. While not the exclusive domain of youth, extreme sports tend to have a younger-than-average target demographic.

Extreme sports are rarely sanctioned by schools. Extreme sports tend to be more solitary than traditional sports may be required for a successful outcome" by Dr. Rhonda Cohen (2012). While use of the term "extreme sport" has spread far and wide to describe a multitude of different activities, exactly which sports are considered 'extreme' is debatable.

There are however several characteristics common to most extreme sports  (rafting and paintballing are notable exceptions, as they are done in teams). In addition, beginning extreme athletes tend to work on their craft without the guidance of a coach (though some may hire a coach later). 

 

Activities categorized by media as extreme sports differ from traditional sports due to the higher number of inherently uncontrollable variables. These environmental variables are frequently weather and terrain related, including wind, snow, water and mountains. Because these natural phenomena cannot be controlled, they inevitably affect the outcome of the given activity or event. 

 

In a traditional sporting event, athletes compete against each other under controlled circumstances. While it is possible to create a controlled sporting event such as X Games, there are environmental variables that cannot be held constant for all athletes. Examples include changing snow conditions for snowboarders, rock and ice quality for climbers, and wave height and shape for surfers.

 

Whilst traditional sporting judgment criteria may be adopted when assessing performance (distance, time, score, etc.), extreme sports performers are often evaluated on more subjective and aesthetic criteria. This results in a tendency to reject unified judging methods, with different sports employing their own ideals and indeed having the ability to evolve their assessment standards with new trends or developments in the sports.

NameGlidingRolling

Motorizedoffshore racing, wakeboarding, waterskiing, air racing, glidingMotorcycle road racing, rallying, motocross

Non Motorizedsurfing, windsurfing, kiteboarding, skiing, snowboarding, parachuting, wingsuit, sailingskateboarding, mountain biking, mountain boarding, freestyle biking, freestyle scooter
 

 

Examples of extreme sports 

 

• Auto racing

• Cheese rolling

• Motorcycle racing

• Truck racing

• BMX

• BASE jumping

• Bungee jumping

• Cave diving

• Formula One

• Freediving

• Freeflying

• Freestyle scootering

• Freeskiing

• Flowriding

• Gliding

• Hang gliding

• Hardcourt Bike Polo

• Ice climbing

• Ice canoeing

• Kitesurfing

• Land windsurfing

• Mixed martial arts

• Motocross

• MotoGP

• Mountain biking

• Mountaineering

• Mountainboarding

• Paragliding

• Parkour

• Powerbocking

• Rallying

• Rafting

• Rock climbing

• Sandboarding

• Scuba diving

• Skateboarding

• Skydiving

• Skimboarding

• Slacklining and variations thereof (chief among them highlining)

• Snowboarding

• Snowmobile

• Snowskating

• Snow skiing

• Speedway

• Street luge

• Surfing

• Wakeboarding

• Waveski

• WCMX (skatepark sport)

• Whitewater kayaking

• Windsurfing

• Wingsuit flying