Most Dangerous Sports in the World
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When many people think of dangerous sports, the first ones that come to mind are football, hockey and any other combat sport. The collisions and brutality of these sports are as clear as day as they are with virtually any contact sport.
But there are dangers involved in lots of sports, and they’re ones that may not be apparent to the casual fan. Instead of collisions and contact being the problem, these dangers can come in the form of predators, opponents, equipment, overuse, and even physics can pose hazards to the athletes involved. Non-contact sports sometimes have even more dangers than contact ones and can lead to injuries ranging from strains and sprains to more serious catastrophes such as paralysis and even death.
So consider yourself warned. These are the 30 most dangerous sports.
30. Skateboarding
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Dangers involved: Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 70,000 annual trips to ER
Bottom Line: Skateboarding
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As with most things, the higher risks a skateboarder takes, the greater likelihood of serious injury. Of course, there are the cuts, scrapes, bumps and bruises that can come from falling off your skateboard, but there are also more catastrophic injuries such as what Jake Brown suffered in 2007.
Brown was competing in the Summer X Games in a Big Air event on a quarterpipe ramp. But he lost his board on the way up one side, leaving his own legs as the only thing he could land on. Brown ended up falling nearly 45 feet onto the bottom of the ramp and suffered a ruptured spleen, fractured vertebrae, fractured wrist, bruised liver, bruised lung and a concussion.
29. Paintball
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Dangers involved: Opponents, Equipment
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 45 injuries per 100,000 annual participants
Bottom Line: Paintball
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Paintballing allows for heavy padding, but you can’t cover up everything. When players are shot by paintballs, and they elude the padding, bruises and welts are often left behind, lasting from days to weeks. Commercial venues often mandate rules that players can’t shoot an opponent within 15 feet, but it would be extremely naive to believe that everyone follows those rules, leading to more injuries.
The most serious of injuries related to paintballing have been shots to the head. Many people have even suffered permanent eye damage from getting shot during moments when their helmets were off.
28. Lacrosse
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Dangers involved: Collisions, Equipment, Opponents
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 5,545 injuries (men), 3,311 injuries (women) per NCAA season
Bottom Line: Lacrosse
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Lacrosse is known as the fastest sport on two feet, so when there’s a collision, it is usually high impact. The fast speeds as well as sudden cutting are also not easy on the lower body joints and tissues, as torn ACLs account for roughly 17.1 percent of the sport’s injuries.
From the waist up, lacrosse players are equipped similarly to hockey players, so it’s safe to say many of the dangers in hockey are also present in lacrosse. Body checking and stick checking is allowed in the sport, so those often lead to bruises, strains and sprains. Speaking of bruises, those also result when the rubber ball contacts one of the few unpadded areas of the body, leaving behind “badges of courage” as they are known in lacrosse lexicon.
27. Tug of War
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Dangers involved: Equipment, Physics
No. of annual accidents/deaths: N/A
Bottom Line: Tug of War
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Tug of war was actually competed at every Summer Olympics from 1900 to 1920 before discontinuation. It wasn’t due to the dangers and injuries as to why it was pulled, but those may play a part as to why it hasn’t been re-inserted into the Olympics program. Back strains are the most common musculoskeletal injury, as the back muscles are primary muscles used in the competition.
But other injuries are often the result of the rope as fingers can get caught when participants wrap the rope around their hands for a better grip. An example of that came during a tug of war contest at a high school in 2013. Forty California students took part, the rope ended up snapping, and two of the participants ended up having a total of nine fingers amputated.
26. Water Polo
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Dangers involved: Opponents, Equipment
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 36 percent of participants reported a concussion
Bottom Line: Water Polo
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Water polo is a contact sport that has the usual injuries that result from pushing, grabbing or swiping. Shoulder injuries are common, especially when players are hit when throwing the ball. But the real dangers within the sport are often unnoticed because they take place underwater.
Kicks to the groin and leg, pinches and pokes as well as knees to the rib cage are common things that happen where the referee can’t see. Players will do anything they can to get an advantage, and unless there’s an underwater monitor on the horizon, these underwater acts will continue.
25. Baseball
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Dangers involved: Overuse, Equipment
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 1.85 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures
Bottom Line: Baseball
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The human arm just isn’t meant to throw as hard as possible for years and years and years. This overuse by pitchers has led to a dramatic increase in UCL tearing in the elbow, which, more often than not, results in the infamous Tommy John Surgery. Even teenagers are getting the surgery these days, as their arms are being overworked even before they finish high school.
While Tommy John Surgery is essentially reserved for pitchers, anyone who steps inside the batter’s box is at risk of getting plunked. While a 75 mph curveball to the backside won’t do much damage, you can’t say the same for a 100 mph fastball to the face.
24. Cheerleading
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Dangers involved: Falls
No. of annual accidents/deaths: Average of one fatality per year
Bottom Line: Cheerleading
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With all of the broken bones, concussions, strains and sprains that cheerleaders suffer, you would think they were competing in one of the sports they cheer for like football. But these injuries primarily come from the stunts that cheerleaders perform such as the human pyramids they build or the basket tosses they partake in.
Everyone involved in these stunts needs to be in sync, and if one person is off, then not only could the stunt be unsuccessful, but all involved could get hurt. Obviously, the person at the top of the pyramid or being thrown into the air is in the most danger, but the spotters and bases are at risk as well. An example came in 2008 when a cheerleader died after her lungs collapsed following an accidental kick in the chest from a tumbler.
23. Alpine Skiing
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Dangers involved: Crashing, Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 2.6 injuries per 1,000 skier days
Bottom Line: Alpine Skiing
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Professional skiers can reach speeds up to 80 mph, and even recreational skiers can reach dangerous speeds. When you’re skiing down a snow-covered slope, all it takes is too much lean forward, hitting an object or an equipment malfunction for you to end up going down the slope in an unsafe manner. Learning how to fall correctly can help mitigate injuries, but many people don’t bother in learning those skills and unwisely take their chances.
Most injuries related to alpine skiing are upper-body injuries, although Olympic medal-winning alpine skier Lindsey Vonn was infamous for the various knee injuries she suffered during her career to the point that she had no ACL in her knee at her retirement.
22. Skydiving
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Dangers involved: Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 22.4 fatalities per year
Bottom Line: Skydiving
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Anytime you choose to fall thousands of feet with just a parachute (or two) to save you, there is always the risk of an equipment malfunction. But a study showed that there are roughly 7.5 fatalities per 1 million jumps, so the likelihood of death is almost miniscule. However, there are many other injuries that can result upon impact with the ground, and approximately 85 percent of all skydiving injuries come from impact.
Specifically the ankles and wrists are most often hurt, as an outstretched limb upon landing is a recipe for danger. This is why parachutists are encouraged to do hours upon hours of training before their first jumps.
21. Weightlifting
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Dangers involved: Physics, Equipment
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 6.3 fatalities per year
Bottom Line: Weightlifting
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Not to be confused with powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting consists of the clean and jerk as well as the snatch. Both exercises put a great deal of stress on the shoulders, and sometimes those muscles or joints can’t sustain the stress. Injuries are frequent in the sport, with shoulder impingement, muscle strains and dislocations all possible damages.
And that’s just from the force the exercises place on the body. Other injuries can involve the bar, which is held overhead in both exercises, falling on the athlete and injuring their head, neck or anything else.
20. Ironman Triathlon
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Dangers involved: Overuse, Drowning
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 6.9 fatalities per year
Bottom Line: Ironman triathlon
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There are many different triathlon race formats that can be as short as 6 miles in total distance for novices. But the Ironman Triathlon is at the other end of the spectrum and is 140.62 miles in total distance.
The level of endurance it takes to complete an Ironman takes quite a toll on the body, as overuse injuries such as tissue inflammation and stress fractures are common on the lower body. Then, there’s the toll it takes on the heart — several people have died either during or immediately afterwards due to cardiac arrest or heart attacks.
19. Gymnastics
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Dangers involved: Falls, Twisties
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 1,370 injuries per NCAA season
Bottom Line: Gymnastics
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Simone Biles introduced the casual gymnastics fan to the term “twisties” at the Tokyo Olympics. It’s when a gymnast loses the mind-body connection, which often leads to disorientation and a loss of where one’s body is in space. With a sport like gymnastics that features several aerial moves, flips and tumbles, this can be extremely dangerous.
A perfect example of that came at the 1996 Olympics when 14-year-old American Dominique Moceanu lost her spatial awareness while competing on the balance beam. The result: Moceanu landed directly on her head on the beam when she was supposed to land on her feet instead.
18. Hockey
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Dangers involved: Collisions, Fighting, Equipment
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 20,000 ER trips per year (in United States)
Bottom Line: Hockey
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Both of the first two dangers of hockey often go together, as the collisions from body checking frequently lead to fighting. It’s estimated that 80 percent of all hockey injuries involve some sort of trauma to the head either from being checked by an opponent, being checked into the boards or falling to the ice after being checked and hitting one’s head.
The third hockey danger is the most perilous of them all and can come from things like a player getting hit in the throat by a puck or players even being lacerated by ice skates. Fortunately, no NHL player has ever died from a skate laceration, but in 1989, Clint Malarchuk nearly bled to death after both an artery and vein in his neck were sliced by a skate during a game.
17. Pole Vaulting
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Dangers involved: Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: One fatality per year since 1980
Bottom Line: Pole Vaulting
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Whenever you use a pole to aid yourself 18 to 20 feet in the air with “hopes” that you land on padding, you’re involved in a very dangerous sport. Yes, pole vaulters have trained all of their lives to land the right way, but what happens if the pole snaps on your ascent? And what happens if a huge wind gust knocks you backwards while in the air instead of over the bar where the cushioning awaits below?
The Tampa Bay Times once labeled pole vaulting “The Deadliest Sport in America” after two deaths occurred in one week’s span of a high school athlete and a college athlete.
16. Horse Racing
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Dangers involved: Falling, Overuse
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 1.41 fatalities per 1,000 starters (horses)
Bottom Line: Horse Racing
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Horse racing presents dangers both to the jockeys and to the horses themselves. A study by the University of North Carolina found that for every 1,000 jockeys, 600 will be treated, which accounts for a staggering 60 percent. Many of these are head injuries from jockeys falling or being thrown off horses, as it’s quite a long way down to the ground.
Then, the dangers that horses experience have more to do with the horses’ handlers than the animals themselves. Horse racing is a big business, so trainers and owners often push their horses just as a coach would push his players to be in shape and perform as well as possible. This often leads to overuse injuries, especially with the musculoskeletal system, which often renders the horses useless and leads to early deaths.
15. Bobsledding
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Dangers involved: Crashes
No. of annual accidents/deaths: N/A
Bottom Line: Bobsledding
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It’s something that’s not talked about often given the lack of prominence of the sport, but you could argue bobsledding causes as much brain damage as football does. The bobsledders' heads collide with their own helmets multiple times during a race, especially during sharp turns. Then, there’s what happens when there’s a malfunction or crash, and the bobsledders, who have no padding or seatbelts, are then subjected to 80 mph speeds with no protection.
A brain scan of one bobsledder showed micro tears in the brain’s white matter, which leads many doctors to think bobsledders are very much at risk of developing CTE.
14. Rock Climbing
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Dangers involved: Overuse
No. of annual accidents/deaths: Approximately 3,500 ER visits per year
Bottom Line: Rock Climbing
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Whether natural rock or an artificial rock wall, gripping these masses over and over and over again can, unsurprisingly, lead to overuse injuries. Calluses are one of the most common injuries, especially for advanced rock climbers who treat it more like a job than a hobby.
Harnesses and climbing ropes do a good job of preventing falls but even those can cause injuries from friction. It’s estimated that roughly 75 percent of all rock climbing injuries reside in the area between the fingers and the shoulders.
13. Dog Sled Racing
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Dangers involved: Weather
No. of annual accidents/deaths: Approximately two dog deaths per year
Bottom Line: Dog Sled Racing
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Most outdoor sports are contested in nice sunny weather where minor sunburn is really the only thing you have to worry about. But dog sled racing is an Arctic sport contested in the heart of the cold, Alaskan winter. Some races, like the famous Iditarod, last upwards of two-weeks long where both the musher and his team of dogs have to brave the elements.
Frostbite isn’t uncommon, in fact it’s almost a given. Then, there’s the treatment of the dogs who are outfitted in much fewer layers of clothing than the mushers. Many dogs have been injured and even died during racing, which has led to criticism from animal rights’ groups.
12. Skeleton
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Dangers involved: Crashes
No. of annual accidents/deaths: N/A
Bottom Line: Skeleton
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Unlike luge, which is face-up and feet-first, skeleton is face-down and head-first. That position alone would cause anyone anxiety when on a sled that can go over 80 mph. But then there are the inherent crashes that come with the sport, and a racing helmet and goggles can only protect so much.
Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia infamously died during the 2010 Winter Olympics when, during a practice run, he lost control on a turn. He was thrown off his sled, off the track and struck a pole at nearly 90 mph, and subsequent CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
11. Surfing
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Dangers involved: Predators, Drowning, Bacteria
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 2.2 injuries per 1,000 surfing days
Bottom Line: Surfing
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Like all water sports, the threat of drowning appears any time you climb upon a surfboard. But unlike other water sports such as pool swimming, diving or water polo, which are in controlled environments, surfers have to deal with the elements of the ocean. One of those elements is the presence of predators such as sharks, stingrays and jellyfish.
Bethany Hamilton is one of the most famous surfers in the world, and as a 13-year-old she had her left arm bitten off by a shark as she dangled it in the water while lying on her surfboard. Other marine life that can cause harm is bacteria such as E. coli. It’s estimated that surfers swallow 10 times as much seawater as swimmers do, so their bodies become breeding grounds for microorganisms.
10. Mountaineering
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Dangers involved: Falling, Weather, Natural Disasters
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 2.5 accidents per 1,000 mountaineers per year
Bottom Line: Mountaineering
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Over 10,000 people have reached the peak of Mount Everest, but over 300 people have died while trying to do so. In other words, for every 100 people that conquer earth’s highest mountain, three people die while trying to do the same.
Mount Everest is just one of the many mountains that has claimed lives, as the sport of mountaineering contains several potentially fatal hazards. Avalanches, falls, frostbite and reaching the death zone, where oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life, are the most common causes of injuries and deaths.
9. Parkour
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Dangers involved: Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 5.5 injuries per 1,000 hours of training
Bottom Line: Parkour
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Even with roots in obstacle course racing and martial arts, parkour is considered a fringe sport. However, it’s under consideration to be added to the 2024 Olympics, so there’s that.
Regardless of how you classify it, there are inherent dangers trying to transfer from one point to another in a complex manner. Parkour practitioners, called traceurs, often take risks in making jumps and leaps they probably shouldn’t be making. A couple of traceurs have died from doing things such as trying to jump from the top of one building to another, while others have gotten seriously hurt from trying to land on awkwardly shaped objects like poles and rods.
8. Rugby
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Dangers involved: Opponents
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 15.2 injuries per 1,000 match exposures
Bottom Line: Rugby
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Whether rugby league, rugby union or rugby sevens, the sport is brutal on the body even though the participants take great pride in playing without pads. And that is where most of the injuries occur, as approximately half of all rugby-related injuries happen while a player is tackling another or being tackled.
Injuries are also common to the neck when, during a scrum, there is a mismatch between the two sides on the opposing front rows. Concussions are also widespread, although the underreported nature of them means there’s even more injuries than what’s publicly known.
7. Boxing
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Dangers involved: Opponents
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 12 fatalities per year
Bottom Line: Boxing
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Contrary to popular belief, boxing gloves don’t reduce injuries to the head. Rather, they reduce injuries to the hands and may actually increase head injury rate. That’s because fighters wearing gloves are able to punch harder without fear of hurting their hands and numerous fighters – including The Greatest – suffered brain injuries.
Then, there’s all of the other injuries that happen in a sport in which the main objective is to inflict as much physical damage as possible on your opponent. In the early days of the sport, there was no time limit. Then 15 rounds became the maximum before moving to 12 rounds in the early 1980s. There are many who would prefer that number be reduced even more to prevent long-term injury.
6. Football
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Dangers involved: Collisions, Opponents
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 1.2 million injuries per year among 1.5 million annual participants
Bottom Line: Football
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There are contact sports, and then there are collision sports. Football falls into the latter. While it’s been competed for over 100 years, it’s only been recently that long-term injuries from the sport have come to light. That’s because the gridiron greats that competed years ago are now discovering brain injuries that they weren’t aware of while playing. Advancements have been made in regards to helmet safety in recent years. But as any doctor will tell you, helmets only protect the head, not the brain.
Outside of the brain injuries, there’s the natural wear and tear that comes from one player constantly crashing into another roughly 70 times per game. Hall of Fame center Jim Otto infamously played in 210 consecutive games with the Raiders. But that came at a cost, as Otto estimates that he’s had over 70 surgeries, including 28 to his knee alone.
5. Pro Wrestling
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Dangers involved: Opponents, Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: N/A
Bottom Line: Pro Wrestling
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It’s a bit odd that pro wrestling, which is scripted, has infinitely more dangers than amateur wrestling, which isn’t scripted. But amateur wrestling is mat-based while pro wrestling has moved further and further away from that. There are flips, slams, dives and jumps that are specifically inserted into matches to draw an “Ahhh” out of the crowd. Many compare current pro wrestlers to gymnasts due to all of the flips and aerial pursuits they use, while others simply call wrestlers glorified stunt men.
Yeah, you’re not gonna see this in amateur wrestling.
4. Auto Racing
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Dangers involved: Crashes
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 6.5 fatalities per year
Bottom Line: Auto Racing
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Some fans of NASCAR and other auto racing bodies watch strictly for the crashes, as it raises the excitement of the sport. Crashes are essentially a given when there are 30-plus vehicles going that fast in that close of an area, and auto racing has lost some of its biggest stars to crashes.
Dale Earnhardt Sr. died from a crash at the 2001 Daytona 500, which came just months after a crash killed Adam Petty, the grandson of Richard Petty. Fans are also not exempt from the dangers, as seen in 1955 at Le Mans. An on-track crash caused debris to fly into the stands and hit spectators. All told, 84 people died and nearly 200 more were injured.
3. Bullfighting
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Dangers involved: Opponents
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 9.13 percent (injury rate), 0.48 percent (mortality rate)
Bottom Line: Bullfighting
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Part of the allure of bullfighting is the danger involved with a half-ton bull charging at a matador. Nearly every bullfighter has been gored at some point in his career, and several of those gores have ended up fatal. Gores are so often in Spanish bullfighting that a special kind of surgeon has been developed to treat these kinds of injuries. Most bullrings even have an operating room for immediate treatment.
Then, there are the dangers to the bulls themselves thay are often killed or at the very least immobilized during the course of the contest.
2. Mixed Martial Arts
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Dangers involved: Opponents
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 12.5 injuries per 100 competitor rounds
Bottom Line: Mixed Martial Arts
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The dangers of MMA are obvious, as not many sports reward you with a victory for choking out the person across from you. But getting to that chokeout is just as dangerous as the maneuver itself, as fighters inflict damage on each other with punches, kicks, elbows, knees, submissions, takedowns, sweeps, throws, so on and so forth.
Fighters can even get hurt when they are the ones trying to inflict damage. Case in point: At UFC 168, the legendary Anderson Silva broke his leg when he delivered a kick to his opponent.
1. Running of the Bulls
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Dangers involved: Opponents, Falling
No. of annual accidents/deaths: 50-100 injuries per run; 15 fatalities since 1910
Bottom Line: Running of the Bulls
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If you’ve never witnessed a running of the bulls, it’s essentially a group of people purposely running in front of a group of cattle in a sectioned-off area. Unlike bullfighting, these individuals aren’t trained to dodge bovine, and unlike bullfighting, there are additional dangers that come with running in crowds.
Many participants often fall within the scrum and get trampled, with a man in 1977 dying from suffocation during a pile-up.