Top 10 Best Endurance Sports

The Top Ten

Marathon Running

How is this not number one? I mean, people actually DIE doing marathons because they don't have enough endurance and get dehydrated. It's mind-boggling to me how a race that depends solely on endurance is not number one.

Hands down, this should be number one. I have completed a 5K race, and I was in the 5th spot. You cannot imagine how much effort and endurance it takes to achieve a position in the top 5 spots in a marathon.

Marathon should be the sport requiring the most endurance. Soccer (football) players stop for about 10 seconds for a 'break' every time they sprint.
Boxing

Boxing is a martial art and combat sport in which two people wearing protective gloves throw punches at each other for a predetermined set of time in a boxing ring.
It is governed by rules that include weight classes, scoring systems, and protective regulations. Boxing is an Olympic sport and... read more

As a boxer myself, it should be number one. It's a mental and physical sport. People who say it's not an endurance sport have never been in the ring or seen a match. Three minutes per round can feel like hours. It should be number one.

Boxing has to be one of the hardest sports out there, not only mentally but physically. You're playing chess, and you are the piece. Dancing, punching, pushing, and even worse, you can't kick.

Other sports like lacrosse and hockey have short shifts. In boxing, you go for 3 minutes for a lot of rounds. You're using your arms a lot too, which takes you out.
Triathlon

I would say Ironman triathlon is definitely the most demanding endurance sport and probably the reason just 0.001% of the population has completed it. It is continuous strength from beginning to end and can take 17 hours to complete. What other sport are you continuously doing for 17 hours straight with no breaks?

People say swimming takes a lot of training, but try adding running and cycling training to that. If you want to compete at a high level, you have to be 100% dedicated. Many of the top athletes could do well in any of the three disciplines in the Olympics!
Track and Field
Swimming

Swimming is an individual or team sport and activity. Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports, with events in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly.
It requires strong cardiovascular fitness and technique, and is also widely practiced as a low-impact form of... read more

Most people are afraid of eating too much. We swimmers are afraid of not eating enough. I burn 2 days of food I ate in only a sixth of my practice. We burn the most calories of all sports.
We are glad that the pools we swim in are cold because, after a while, your entire body is pretty much giving off steam. The young kids who decide to quit because swim is too hard still have no idea. They swam 25's. We swim 500's and more at a time.
When people think of swimming, they think of diving to the bottom and coming back up. NO. It is nothing like that. Try to imagine this: You are running an 800. You are holding your breath and can only breathe once every 100. You are kicking a 3-pound weight ball as you run. That is equal to a 200 freestyle.
Soccer

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players each. It is played with a spherical ball. The objective is to score goals by getting the ball into the opposing team's net. Soccer is the most popular sport globally, governed by FIFA... read more

As far as team sports go, football/soccer requires the most endurance. It's 90 minutes of nonstop running with only a 15-minute break. Basketball has significantly smaller courts and is 48 minutes long in total. Football/Handegg is only 60 minutes in total, but if you tally up the time when the ball is actually in play, the action amounts to a mere 11 minutes.
Baseball still requires skill, like all the sports mentioned before, but is vastly less physically demanding than the rest. There is a lot of standing, waiting for the ball to be hit, and running a short distance for bases.
This is my breakdown of why football/soccer is more demanding than the most popular sports played in the States.
Water Polo

Water polo is a competitive team sport played in a pool between two teams of seven players, including one goalkeeper per team. The game consists of four periods in which teams attempt to score by throwing a ball into the opponent's goal. It requires a combination of swimming ability, strategy, and physical... read more

On top of the fact that swimming is hard enough from lap to lap, you have to continue to pass and shoot on the move. Water polo is one of the most enduring sports, in which you are constantly on the move. While eggbeating, you are swimming lap to lap and passing without any breaks! Can you imagine doing all of that with no stop?
To make matters worse, water polo is a very rough sport and involves a lot of contact, including punching, kicking, and drowning.

Believe it or not, studies have proved that synchronized swimming is just as hard as water polo, but it requires your strength in different ways. A water polo player needs violence (sort of), but a synchronized swimmer needs to use all their strength and look like it's easy and graceful meanwhile.
Cycling

Dude, there is no competition for cycling. And really? Soccer?
You can stand in soccer. The best thing you can do in cycling is stop pedaling. For hours at a time, you are either sitting on your couch or out of the saddle, pulling many watts. If you are a competitive cyclist, you could be riding up to 24 hours a week or 772 km (480 miles) a week. If you're not riding, then you are recovering, eating, and stretching.
I'd like to see a soccer player ride 100 km (60 miles) averaging at least 30 km per hour (18 mph). I would love to take up a challenger's kick, a ball, and run around a field.

Hands down, long-distance cycling is the hardest endurance sport ever. It is also supported by a census from ESPN.
The amount of physical strength it needs is huge, but the mental strength it requires is just grueling.
Completing thousands of kilometers on a cycle seems impossible. That's why cycling should be number one.
Tennis

Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent or between two teams of two players each.
Matches are played on various surfaces such as grass, clay, or hard court, each affecting gameplay differently. It is a globally popular sport with major tournaments including... read more

The longest tennis match lasted 11 hours in 2010 at Wimbledon. With little break, tennis is an extreme feat of endurance.

You can be on that court for 2-3 hours, with barely any break. That's pretty tough.
Cross-Country Skiing

Arguably the most hardcore sport one can subject themselves to. 15th is a large understatement, almost as large as THESE GUNS. Skiing is the epitome of endurance. Feel free to fight me on it because I'll probably win.

Cross-country skiing has been proven a number of times to be the most cardio demanding sport there is. Absolutely no unfit athletes, rock-hard abs, and training every day of the week, not to mention racing at -20, sometimes for as long as 50 km. The best in the world can do this in 1 hour and 30 minutes. Yes, that's 50 km!

The Newcomers

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Roller Skating
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Taekwondo

A full-contact combat sport composed of three rounds.
Athletes fight using kicks, including spinning and high ones. This takes lots of energy, especially when both athletes are very fast.

The Contenders

American Football

American football is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The game involves advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone to score points. It is most popular in the United States, with the NFL being the top professional league.
Rowing

This is incredibly underrated. Really, I mean soccer for endurance? And volleyball? I mean, come on, guys. I have played almost every sport out there: soccer, LAX. I'm also a long-distance runner (this belongs on this list), and I can promise you this belongs in the top three.
Have you ever anticipated something (like a 2k) with such fear that you wished you would break a leg that day, just so you wouldn't have to do it? Or wished you would pass out in a piece so the pain would stop? Tell me, soccer players, when is the last time that about half your teammates were crying in anticipation of a test? When is the last time you looked at a teammate and thought, "I will do anything to get her spot"?
That being said, I recognize that soccer is hard, just not in the same mental endurance way that crew is. If there were a list for what sports require the most coordination, then soccer would win.
Most importantly, though, crew is addicting. The mental endurance it has given me throughout these four years is the most valuable skill I have. My teammates are irreplaceable. The moments I've had when all the tears and pain pay off and you win a race are the ones I look back on on a rainy day.
So if we are talking about endurance, I leave you with one word: rowing.
Wrestling

Wrestling is a combat sport involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins, and other grappling holds.
There are different styles including freestyle, Greco-Roman, and professional wrestling. Olympic wrestling focuses on freestyle and Greco-Roman... read more

I run cross country, I've played football, and I've tried soccer, but nothing compares to the difficulty of wrestling. Wrestling doesn't receive a lot of credit, but it sure requires more than every other sport I've tried. Imagine working full force in practice, then going home to constantly monitor your eating habits just to make weight. I've never seen that in any other sport in high school.

Go and ask one of your buddies to wrestle for two minutes. Then see how winded you are afterward.
Then, imagine doing that against someone who's better than you and won't quit until the whistle blows. Toughest sport I've ever done.
Basketball

Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high mounted to a backboard at each end. It is one of the most popular sports worldwide, especially in the United States, where the NBA is... read more

I did it, and I did football and others too. Basketball and swimming are really hard!
Motocross Racing

Only moto riders would rate this at number 1. You are going 100% nonstop for 30 minutes. People might say that all you are doing is holding on to a bike with a motor, and that's wrong.
I've been dirt biking for 6 years now. I can jump 10 feet, and even with all that hard training for 6 years, I can't ride 100% for 15 minutes. Every time I have a friend ride my little 110 Kawi pit bike, they get tired after 5 minutes of slow riding.
Motocross should be at #1, and every single moto rider out there would agree with me. I also do track and field, and was the best in my 6th grade. Motocross is 10 times harder than track and field. Even when everybody calls me a try-hard because I try so hard, Motocross is still 10 times harder, and you need so much endurance for it. So, I think this should be at the #1 spot.
Ice Hockey

Field hockey is the most revolutionary sport in terms of speed and intensity. Rules are changed frequently just to speed the game up! Professional teams require around 22 on a Yo-Yo test, much higher than most other sports.
Mixed Martial Arts

Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, from a variety of other combat sports and martial arts.
It gained mainstream popularity through organizations such as the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship... read more
Cross-Country Running

You think it's easy until you try it. I went in already fit from years of soccer, swim, volleyball, and other sports, but none had prepared me for this.
Training starts in May and continues throughout the entire summer, even though the season officially begins in September. Practice is every day for at least 2 hours. Regardless of how hot, cold, rainy, or muddy it is, meets and practices are never canceled. Truly one of the most physically and mentally demanding sports.

Case A: Our sport is your sport's punishment.
Case B: It's all about endurance.
Case C: Run 70+ miles per week without an off-season and come back and complain that your sport is harder. These are quality miles, not just a 15-minute jogging pace. I think that marathoners do deserve number 1, but this should be second. We do all the ab and arm conditioning as other sports, in addition to one or two running workouts a week.
Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a contact team sport played between two teams using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick.
The objective is to score by shooting the ball into the opponent's goal. Lacrosse has several variations, including field lacrosse, box lacrosse, and... read more

You run so much more than in most sports, mainly in midfield. Players also have to check, shoot, and hit people simultaneously. My coach told us that if he ever sees any of us walking on midfield, we'll be taken out and won't play again. It's like we have to run, or we don't play.

You run up to 5 miles as a midfielder. Yes, there are breaks, but you are always running as a middie on the field.
Rugby Union

Rugby 7s requires you to run non-stop for 7 minutes, then take a water break, and then another 7 minutes. Within this period, you often need to tackle other players going their fastest (takes a lot out of you), or you need to be sprinting and throwing the ball. This sport works everything! It definitely should be #1.

Rugby is #22?! I'd like to think it's one of the manliest, grittiest sports out there.
Badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" and "doubles."
It is an Olympic sport with fast-paced gameplay and requires quick reflexes and agility. Badminton is... read more
Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.
It is played both indoors and on sand, with beach volleyball being an Olympic event since 1996.
Australian Rules Football (AFL)

AFL is a clear #2 behind Marathon, perhaps because people don't know about the sport.
An average AFL player runs ~15km (9.5 miles) per two-and-a-half-hour game. Along with incorporating the physical hardness of tackling, bumping, and fighting, AFL is EASILY the #2, if not #1.
Squash
Endurance Motorsport