Top 10 Most Dangerous Sports

As someone who works a part-time job at a farm for a living, I have certainly been around horses and ridden them too. I'm pretty much a rookie rider (herding sheep on horseback, no problem. Riding around the countryside, not a big deal for me. Barrel racing/jumping, I would need to think about that). The farm's horses are usually mares, and they can be a bit of work. As you know, you need to have strength if you want to canter or gallop. Doing so without lessons can result in multiple injuries or even fatal accidents. Bolting and rearing are also common. The farm's owner, who teaches me how to ride, warns me about that. So, yeah, horseback riding takes a lot of skill and many years of training, but the most important thing is that horses are animals, and you don't form a bond with them that easily.

There are so many fatal riding accidents that it's nearly impossible to keep count. Working around and with any living, thinking animal immediately presents obvious risks. Jade South, Jessica Forsyth, and Emma Jonathan are just some names of promising young riders who have lost their lives doing the thing they loved most in the last three years. The first two names were girls of 14 years.

CHEERLEADERS, READ THIS. I have a few cheerleader friends who even admit that horseback riding is more dangerous. My sister's friend said that horseback riding was easy and that anyone could do it. She said that basketball was harder! Seriously? Then my sister put her on her barrel horse and told her to take her through the pattern. She started out poorly because the horse was getting impatient with her and started rearing up and kept trying to bolt. She later said that it was harder than it looked. Just because it looks easy doesn't mean it is. Riders who know what they are doing make it look easy, but they are trying so hard. They don't know what to expect. We are always in suspense. I have been riding my whole life and have fallen off a total of 18 times. Once, I was loping bareback and my horse spooked at something. I was completely catapulted off of her, landed on my shoulder, and then flipped down a bank. I hopped straight up to chase after my horse who was galloping home. When ...more

How is horseback riding not number one? There were over 50,000 equestrian-related hospitalizations last year. I am a jumper who jumps over 4-foot jumps, being as fast and efficient as possible. For people who ride horses, their heads can be up to 4 meters off the ground, going 40 mph, with nothing but a helmet on. One in five riders will be hospitalized with horse-related injuries. Last year, I had one of my worst falls. We were going over courses, and my horse spooked. He bolted, bucked, reared, and I, unfortunately, fell off. I was wearing a helmet, but my horse ended up kicking the side of my face when he tried to jump over me. I was hospitalized with a broken collarbone, three broken ribs, a shattered wrist, a concussion, and a broken jaw. Now I have a huge scar on the side of my face from where his hoof hit my face and cut it open. If you think cheer is easier than riding, you are out of your mind! I did competitive cheer for seven years. I've been riding for 13 years, and it's ...more

Per capita and overall, BY FAR the most dangerous. I did this for years and lost 2 friends, with an additional 2 friends in wheelchairs for life. Most of the guys I know have lost teeth and have had multiple concussions. I had to quit and moved on to mixed martial arts because I could not physically continue bull riding. If you consider the X Games a sport, that also needs to be considered. Cheerleading is a joke, and soccer is what we do until puberty happens. I guess if you want a sport that consists of crying all the time, soccer could only be second to basketball. Baseball is barely a sport because a position player could almost take a nap. If Prince Fielder is a major athlete in your sport, I'm just saying. He reminds me of golf's John Daly. Oh, and golf is NOT a sport. It falls somewhere between darts and bowling.

Cheerleading, lacrosse, and horseback riding more dangerous than bull riding? Who is making this list, members of the Harvard Country Club?

There is no sport more dangerous than bull riding. Did anyone see the story they did on HBO's "Real Sports"? Bull riders suffer one "significant injury" for every 15 events. The bull rider they interviewed listed his injuries, which included several concussions, 11 surgeries, broken wrists, collar bones, legs, arms, numerous ribs, and several fractures to his face when a bull stomped on his nose! (I don't remember all of them, but it rivaled the injuries of Evel Knievel.)

My niece rode horses (competition jumping) from 7 years old to 17 and never suffered anything more than a bruise.

I'm sorry. All my life, I've been watching bull riding, and I've never seen so many young guys get hurt or killed doing this. Yes, cheerleading is a VERY dangerous activity, but I think it's second to bull riding. You almost never see bull riders above thirty. If they live that long, they retire. You see young guys in their twenties with no teeth who can barely walk, and I've seen plenty of young men get pounded into the dirt, having to be carried out on a stretcher. Next season, you see them in a wheelchair on the sidelines, paralyzed from the neck down. And sometimes, you never see them again.

I bull ride pretty much every other weekend at a private place where we buck bulls to get them ready for rodeos. You get on a bull that weighs anywhere from 1500 to 2000 lbs and risk your life every time you just sit in the chute. As soon as the gate opens, you have a heartbeat to make your next move. With the bull, you don't have time to plan out moves in a locker room or on a bench like in most sports. If you mess up, you're on the ground. If you break something, you have to cowboy up and still get up and run your butt off to the nearest fence so you don't get run over or attacked by the bull. If that isn't the most dangerous sport out there, then I'd like to see a cheerleader get on a bull and last for the 8 seconds. I'd be surprised if they could last 4 seconds.

Here's to the people who say cheerleading isn't a sport and that cheerleaders aren't athletes. The very definition of a sport is, and I quote, "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature." We practice just as much as you do: every day of the week for two hours. We condition, we run, we do ab workouts, push-ups, and planks. No, we don't lift weights. We lift our athletes - and we hold them 10-15 feet in the air until our arms shake and our legs quiver. Don't underestimate the flyers either. We have more muscle than you seem to think. The amount of balance, leg muscle, and core strength it takes to stay in the air is unbelievable to someone who has never done it before. We run full speed at nothing, then flip in the air, twist, and land on our feet. We jump. We jump high - without a trampoline. We concentrate on pointed toes, extended legs, tight arms, jump height, facial expressions, and smiling. Ever based a basket toss? You get blood ...more

Cheerleading is a dangerous sport because if you start doing stunts at a very young age, someone's knees can buckle, causing them to fall on the back spot. Not to mention, when you are tumbling, you can easily break a wrist. If you perform a stunt where you go very high and throw the flyer, you have to be strong and able to catch them, or they will fall flat on the ground.

Every single time we cheerleaders throw a girl in the air, each one of us is taking a risk of getting killed. One wrong move could make her land on our heads and break our necks. One tiny mistake in cheerleading can cause many injuries. The reason it's so dangerous is that it involves five different girls working together to accomplish one task. When one thing goes wrong, all of them are at risk.

I'm not even going to start reading what people have said because I know that 90% of the comments will be negative things about cheer.

Cheerleaders, listen up. It doesn't matter what other people think about cheer. All that matters is that you enjoy what you're doing. I do all-star cheer and high school cheer. Both are very difficult and dangerous, and I know that. That's all that matters. Trying to prove to people that cheer is dangerous won't get you anywhere. No one understands until they try the sport. I know it's frustrating and makes you angry when people say negative things about something you love so much, but you just have to deal with it.

Also, just because you believe cheer is the most dangerous sport doesn't mean you should say bad things about other sports. You don't like it when people say negative things about cheer, and I'm sure other people don't like it when their sport is criticized. Every sport is difficult and dangerous, not just cheer. Stop saying ...more

I was in gymnastics for nine years and had many minor injuries, but also some serious ones. It's a difficult and super dangerous sport. When I was 14, I fractured my wrist so badly that doctors thought they might have to amputate it from my elbow down. Luckily, I managed to undergo three emergency surgeries and came out of my four-day hospital stay with my arm intact! I know a lady who had to have both kneecaps replaced due to all the damage from gymnastics over the years. I have weak wrists and knees now, but I'd do it all over again if I could! I recommend this sport for both males and females. It teaches you discipline, balance, flexibility, coordination, teamwork, and more. It's demanding but well worth it.

Gymnastics should have ranked higher than cheerleading. Sure, you get thrown up in the air, but you have someone to catch you or break your fall. In gymnastics, nobody is there for you. You're crying under the bars or on your neck by the vault, all because you fell as hard and as fast as you could towards the ground. Our practices last for six hours a day and can go up to 40 hours a week. Under the section "Cheerleaders number 3," it says they practice two hours a day. Most of us wish for practices like those we had at the beginning of our careers. The only reason cheerleading was picked is that there are many more participants. In gymnastics, as the levels increase, the number of people decreases drastically. Why? Because it gets extremely difficult. Conditioning isn't fun, but all of us endure the long hours of work for one reason: to win. Some of our requirements are illegal in cheerleading, and those aren't even at our top level. And last time I checked, cheerleaders aren't ...more

Sorry, guys... My daughter has done gymnastics for 10 years AND was a freshman on the varsity cheer and stunt team. I've seen her break toes on the beam, take falls from the bars, and fail to clear back layouts, among many other falls in gymnastics. NONE have scared me, nor has she ever received a serious injury doing gymnastics. She can NO longer participate in cheer or gymnastics because she broke her back doing a stunt. During her last game, she was partner stunting, which for those who don't know, involves the base (the person holding her up) extending his arms straight over his head and holding the cheerleader up by himself. Imagine the boy being 6 feet tall, adding a few more feet for his arms, and then another 5 feet for the height of the cheerleader. Now picture being 15 feet in the air over a basketball court (with NO MATS) and the boy dropping you. You fall 15 feet onto the court with NO mats. BOTH sports are dangerous, and gymnasts shouldn't say otherwise when they've never ...more

Gymnastics is very hard. Have you ever fallen from 10 feet in the air? Or had a friend land a routine, collapse, and have to be carried to the emergency room with a torn muscle? Plus, we have to work out all year just to stay at the same level, unlike football players who get huge 2-3 month breaks in the middle of the year! We also have to work out 20-25 hours a week, and the gyms aren't all air-conditioned or the perfect happy environments that movies portray.

In gym class, I can beat every boy or football player, and don't give me that nonsense about puberty. Every boy in that room has gone through it or is going through it! They all thought I cheated, but I didn't. Also, we may use mats, but football players have all that padding!

I played football for around 11 years, and this sport is more dangerous than cheerleading. Seriously, at the games, the cheerleaders just sit behind us and start singing their cheers and doing whatever they do while there is a game going on. There's halftime when you go out on the field and do the pyramid or whatever, but most of the football guys and the team are focused on what their coach is saying about what the heck is going on in the game. If you think doing planks and abs is really that bad, that's a breeze compared to what we do. Try being coached by an ex-US Army Ranger and doing drills such as Oklahoma and King of the Pit. I've seen my fair share of teammates getting hurt - bloody noses and scratches from these drills, and even in the game. I recall a couple of times an ambulance would have to come onto the field during a game and help a teammate or player out. Seriously, these injuries put the players in the hospital for a good week. Concussions are usually the common ...more

Football is one of those sports where every game someone is injured and can't come back for a few weeks! We put our careers at risk every day. One wrong move and you could have an injury that impacts you for the rest of your life. Also, concussions from football affect you for the rest of your life. A concussion you get in high school can come back 15-20 years later and kill you. That's why we have so much protection. How many other sports can you play with a broken arm and not even notice it until you get back to the locker room? We play with broken toes, broken fingers, messed-up knees and shoulders, and many other injuries and don't even come out of the game. Coaches constantly scream in your face, and you can't get your feelings hurt. You just understand they're trying to help you. Cheerleading is not a sport more dangerous than football.

I play football right now. I'm 13, and it is the most grueling thing on your body. Considering that cheerleaders say it isn't hard, YES IT IS. I have almost been paralyzed by this sport because I was the safety. I'm also the quarterback, and let me tell you, trying to shake off all those defensive line players is hard. Also, being the kicker doesn't require contact, but I have pulled several muscles in my calf and pulled my hamstring twice. Competitive cheerleaders are like, We're better, but no, you guys just stretch. And yes, you can hold people up, but having to push the offensive or defensive line takes all your power, and you're drained after ten seconds. And we still have about an hour and a half to go, not including the injuries that have all the paramedics come if there is an injury. I have personally put someone in the hospital for hitting them too hard near the rib area and broke several ribs. This is more dangerous than cheer.

Football is one of those sports where every day there is an injury. I'm in the midst of my senior year of high school, and a game into my football season. At the end of each practice, we are all bruised up, but I'd say every two weeks there is an injury that leaves us down a player. The risk of head injury is always there. The first day of hitting, we had a player receive a serious concussion, not to mention a dislocated shoulder. Basically, it comes down to this: there is constant contact in football, where you can get hit by guys who are 6'2", 225 lbs and running a 4.7 40-yard dash. There is always a high risk of getting hurt, and most of the time it's more serious than the ankle sprains the cheerleaders at number one are getting.

Unlike most sports that require pads, boxing and MMA are pretty much raw fighting with just gloves and shorts. Unlike other sports where causing someone injury isn't always intentional, boxing and MMA are sports where people are really trying to hurt their opponent. I think purposely trying to hurt someone is worse than doing it by accident. Motocross, bull riding, and horse riding are things that I do not consider to be sports, only because they require little to no actual physical activity. Cheerleaders don't wear pads either, so they can have that, but most of the injuries caused are unintentional. That's why I think boxing and MMA are the most dangerous sports.

The damage boxers take over their careers is massive, not only during a fight but leading up to the fight. The hundreds of rounds spent sparring can be just as, if not more, brutal than a fight itself. These guys are actually conditioning themselves to be able to take repetitive hits to the head. In other sports, the risk of accidents is always possible, although in boxing and all other martial arts sports, there is no such thing as a freak accident.

Also, these guys are trained to hit, and hit hard, both to the body and the head. It's not like getting hit by any average person.

All the other sports listed here, besides this one, are all about injuries and danger. Boxing has the highest rate of documented deaths of any other real sport in the world. We are talking here about situations where brains are detached from the skull due to straight punches to the head and from the sides, internal organ bleeding (liver and kidney failure). UFC is not even close to the dangers of boxing because there are more variety of ways to win, but here, it's all blows to the vital areas of the human component.

All I'm going to say is that boxers train for hours on end, and it's super brutal. I believe this should be ranked higher than horseback riding or football. Just like in horseback riding, one punch could put you in the hospital, and you can most likely die. For example, if you throw a right hook, it exposes a vital organ. If someone punches that hard enough, you're done. No other sport is like boxing. I understand why bull riding is up there. You can get thrown so far that you become paralyzed. However, I think boxing should be either second or third. I've never done horseback riding or cheerleading, but I have done boxing and football. Trust me when I say that boxing is harder than football. So, please vote for boxing. We need to get our point across. We're not just a bunch of little kids punching each other in the face. We are fit individuals beating the hell out of each other, and people should recognize just how much we invest in our sport.

Alright, I've been playing hockey for 3 years (now midget), and each year I went to the hospital at least once: broken bones, fractures, sprains. I'm lucky! I could have had some bad concussions or had my throat slit by a blade. It's rough, and some people go out to hurt people. On ice, it's hard. Look what happened just the other week: Habs vs. Bruins, Chara. That happens more often than you think. That was just serious. You never know what can happen. Horseback riding is dangerous too. I do it. Maybe not as dangerous, but soccer? Come on, seriously? Put some hockey players on the ice with just shin pads, and you'll see what happens then! We've broken the glass three times this year with pucks - a midget team! They're hard rubber and go fast. Maybe not number 1, but ahead of soccer? I think so.

Hockey is definitely way more dangerous than cheerleading. All your flyers are light, so it's easy. I can yell too. Let me see all of you cheerleaders try to skate on not even a 1-inch blade on a sheet of ice. Yeah, you may say it's easy, but step on the ice and play an actual game. On the ice, rotating shifts for an hour. Bet you couldn't do it. You're at risk for a blade to the neck that could slit your neck, and after that, you're done. I play ice hockey and I'm a goalie. I mean, let's see someone else go stand in a little net and get shots at their body all over. When someone is coming full throttle at you, you never know what could go wrong. Yeah, we work out and train hard too. Cheerleading isn't nearly as dangerous and tough as ice hockey.

Hockey should definitely be in the top 5! I've been playing adult league non-checking hockey for 5 years and have had 3 concussions, 3 broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and a pulled quad, not to mention all the sprains and bruises from every game. I got slew-footed tonight and landed flat on my back and could barely get my skates off after the game! One guy on my team caught a slap shot to the skate and ended up with 2 broken bones and surgery. Another caught a puck to the face and had 46 stitches, inside and out of his mouth, and was lucky to keep his teeth. Another had his leg cut open by a skate and almost bled out before he could get to a hospital. Not to mention all the broken legs, collarbones, shoulders, and arms. I don't know how hockey is rated below cheerleading!

In football, can you get a solid ball to fracture your jaw with one hit? Can you get a solid stick to hit any part of your body and easily break a bone? In hockey, we use substitutes because we get injured, not out of breath. If you come away from a hockey match without a deep bruise, then you weren't playing at all. In football, all the players fake it so they can get a penalty. In hockey, you pretend you're not hurt and are desperate to keep going, however badly injured you are. If someone said hockey was not dangerous and football was, then I would happily hit them with my hockey stick in the face and repeat the question. Enough said.

It's the hardest sport to do because of the tracks themselves. Several competitors have died due to a single fatal error: slipping and then falling, taking seven others along with them. I jumped high over the crash and then crashed into the border of the track, sustaining fractures in my arms due to the walls and in my left leg due to the dirt bike's weight. About 30 people were in the race, and over half were involved in the crash. Although I was the eighth person to crash, I don't remember anything after the incident. I was told that 19 people crashed and five died. Most were injured, but it's unclear who was critically injured. Eleven people were in the back and were stopped before reaching the crash site. Those people saw the whole thing after they stopped, but they didn't see how it happened - just what it looked like when 19 of us were on the ground moaning, screaming, or knocked out. The race was canceled, but the five people who died were awarded the winnings for nearing the ...more

Motocross can be a very sketchy sport at times. It is not a matter of if you're going to crash but rather a matter of when. In addition to the obvious risk of hurting yourself by making a subtle mistake off the face of a jump, while railing a turn, or pounding through a whoops section, there is always the added risk of another rider running into you or even landing on top of you. This unfortunately most often happens when you choose not to take the "risk" of clearing a tabletop, triple, etc., that you may not have had the proper ability to do safely. This can put you at much higher risk, as it opens a window for the rider behind you to lose one moment of focus and not realize that he, in turn, will have to double that triple or case that tabletop in order to keep you out of harm's way.

Motocross is hands down the most dangerous sport. Broken arms and legs are a usual occurrence seen every season, and even those injuries are considered to be a lucky break as many riders suffer injuries that leave them paralyzed or dead. I can't believe motocross is only eighth. I think it is because of its lack of popularity. Not to mention that it is an extremely skillful sport. I mean, it looks easy because those guys are so good, but trust me, go try to ride one of those dirt bikes on a track, and you will be shocked. It is not only extremely hard but also extremely scary. The average pro motocross racer suffers an average of 3-5 major injuries before they turn pro... And most of them turn pro between the ages of 16-17. That should give you an idea of the sport's rigorous demands.

If people really think cheerleaders are number one because of practice and their never-give-up attitude, let me educate you. I race motocross. It's very hard and tiring every time you ride. You have probably 80 pounds of gear to wear, as well as trying to maneuver a 350-pound machine in the air. Try doing that for 20 minutes of practice, 20 minutes for moto 1, and then 20 more for moto 2. Also, people may think the dangerous part is doing big jumps or going through holes, but the hardest thing is the start. You don't want to be in the back because you will not win, so you want to be in front - a simple concept everyone gets. Well, on the start, you have 10+ people racing as fast as they can into the first turn that is only 3, maybe 4 bike lengths wide. You cheerleaders, or football players, or whoever, try out motocross and let me know how it goes.

I come from a small province in New Zealand with fewer than 100,000 people living in it. In the last year, two people died and one was paralyzed playing rugby just in my province. That's not including the countless broken bones, concussions, and other injuries. In rugby, if you run straight at someone and have a head knock, you're going to have a bad time. If you are in the middle of a ruck and the other team starts stomping with cleats, you're going to have a bad time. If you're in a maul and it collapses on you, you're going to have a bad time. Rugby is bad if you want to be safe. This list irritates me because people vote for their favorite sport, not the most dangerous one. My favorite sport is cricket, which is pretty dangerous but not as bad as rugby. So, don't vote for sports like soccer. Vote for rugby because it's dangerous.

(Ex-South African here) I played rugby for many years and started playing American football just this past year. I never realized it before, but if you think a helmet and pads make it easier, you have no idea. That helmet becomes a weapon, and it can really hurt getting hit by it. The shoulder pads really aren't as cushioning as I thought they would be.

Additionally, tackling in the air is permitted, as is shoulder barging. Heck, you can get hit to kingdom come even if you're on the other side of the field from the ball. And you most likely won't see it coming, either.

Now, rugby is a great sport and it is tough, but unless you've played both like myself, you can't talk about the pads.

Rugby should be one of the most dangerous sports out there. The men who play don't wear any pads and run around for 80 minutes smashing each other. I have been playing rugby for 7 of my 12 years of life. I have witnessed some brutal injuries. I have broken three fingers on one hand and one on the other. I have also injured my knee, which will affect me for a long time, yet I am still in love with the game.

The beautiful game gives all of the pros lots of different problems in the brain and on their bodies, like broken legs and brain issues. This forces them to undergo various surgeries and life-threatening treatments. This can force them to end their careers and possibly stop making money. In conclusion, this game should be number one on the most dangerous sports list.

I'm not gonna lie, rugby is insanely dangerous. As a girl who played as scrum-half for an all-boys, highly competitive and selective rugby team until I was 15, I'm fully aware of the dangers. Luckily, I managed to avoid major injuries myself, but I have been knocked out a few times and dislocated my shoulder once. I've seen guys get their ribs broken and I'll admit, I broke one guy's rib in a game and broke another guy's nose in an after-match brawl. Meh, sorry, not sorry.

Anyway, this sport should definitely be higher on this list, as people have died playing the sport and I've seen some pretty horrific injuries.

Every lacrosse game, you're nearly guaranteed to have at least one serious injury. In our last game, we had to stop 12 seconds early when one of the kids on the other team got sandwiched hard. Concussion. Dislocated shoulder. The whole shebang. We called in the ambulance, and the kid didn't remember half of it the next day. The best part: it was a completely legal hit. Today, our goalie got knocked unconscious by a hit. A guy got hit in the throat with a cross-check. Have you ever been hit in the throat by a guy sprinting at you? All we could do was watch him squirm on the ground, struggling for air. Meanwhile, one of the guys on the other team took a shot on goal and hit our teammate straight in the head. That knocked him out for a little bit too.

Cheerleading number 1? Laugh out loud! Base jumping and caving should be numbers 1 and 2, no question. Lacrosse is probably where it should be, at number 3. Our coach tore his rotator cuff playing college lax, which is pretty bad. It ruined his career permanently. Two friends have broken their legs playing lacrosse in ground ball scuffles just this last season, and our goalie ended up coughing up blood after taking a hard hit. Personally, I haven't had it too bad, but I have taken a 90 mph solid rubber ball to the... well, balls. I was on the sidelines moaning and puking for a good hour. Also, I've temporarily lost feeling in my arms after being checked, I've been knocked out, and have taken some VERY uncomfortable checks to the stomach. In 2004, a player for Cornell was killed after being hit by a shot.

Lacrosse is extremely dangerous. My team's goalie got hit in the head four times in one game by a head-on shot. After a game, I went to a restaurant and got sympathetic looks from the waitresses because of the number of bruises already forming. Plus, we play hard. If you're not ready for it, a metal stick can crush you and pin you to the ground. In one tournament, I got struck in the head while blocking a shot. I'm a defender. I stayed on because my team needed me. Also, in the championship of that tournament, three of our players had to come off the field: one with a ball to the skull, one with a broken wrist and fingers, and me with a sprained ankle. Flips and tucks are cool, but we are athletes. We risk our lives every game and practice. So tighten your bows and go do a cartwheel or something. I am a woman. You are girls.

Ok, lacrosse is by far more dangerous than cheerleading. To start off, people wear pads in these sports because they're actual contact sports, unlike cheerleading. I've never been a cheerleader, but I do parkour, and I know that the only reason you'd get hurt is if you're bad at it. If you get injured while cheerleading, you shouldn't be doing it.

I just got back from a lax tournament at a college, and there were so many injuries that day. One kid broke his nose from a ball before the games even started. When the games finally started, one kid got hit in the balls even though he was wearing a cup, and I guess he ruptured a testicle. Just in the next game, some kid broke his leg from a big hit. In that same game, another kid got a concussion. I guess last year, a kid came close to losing his leg or something.

I guess hockey deserves to be ahead of lacrosse because they do play on ice with skates. And they also lose teeth a lot, but some of the other sports shouldn't be. ...more

Someone explain how falling off a horse, getting tackled by a big buff guy, doing a flip two meters from the ground, doing an acrobatic move like a handstand on a gymnastics floor, AND fighting a big bruiser is more dangerous than jumping between buildings over 10 stories high (plus doing acrobatics on solid concrete like a rolling front flip or a wall flip). If you don't think parkour is dangerous, you're pretty (by pretty I mean the definition of) stupid. I barely started training for parkour/freerunning a few weeks ago (plus I watch a lot of professional parkour videos), and I already know I'm bound to fall on my back or bleed worse than that time my scooter's brakes failed, making that the worst bleeding of my life so far. If you knew what it feels like to climb really thin fences with little to no support to step on or jumping between quite large gaps, parkour would be number one. Please, tell me of a hobby that's more dangerous than doing stunts that, if messed up the slightest ...more

Parkour is the MOST dangerous sport. Not only does it include flipping and jumping, but parkour also takes place on concrete. In any other sport, the most height you could get is your own height plus half. If you make the wrong move at the wrong time, you are done for! In cheerleading, there is no death involved - just broken bones or, at worst, paralysis. When you're up on a two-story building and you jump off, and your head hits the concrete first, it's over. Horseback riding is NOT the most dangerous sport! Why are so many people voting for it? A horse can break your bone, but can't kill you! I think the problem is that people don't know about parkour.

Parkour/freerunning is not a sport. It is an art and a discipline, so it shouldn't even be on the list. It should be above the list. I don't think horseback riding is an art. It doesn't even match the definition of a discipline. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I hate parkour or anything. I love it, and I train every day, but it shouldn't even be on the list for the reasons I mentioned earlier, and because it's so awesome that the list doesn't even deserve to have parkour on it.

Plus, I'd like to see a horseback rider flip off a 10-foot wall or jump and stick on a bar for more than 10 seconds. I'd also like to see footballers and hockey players perform a standing gainer on flat ground.

This is an amazing sport. It requires extreme skill and dedication if you want to get anywhere with it. You have to be in amazing physical shape and have more guts than most people. Could any boxer, football player, soccer player, rugby player, or any other athlete catch a parkour runner in a city? No, you could not. We train the same way you do, plus we focus on everything that every sport emphasizes when it comes to training. We train for everything. Now, if you would all start jumping off your house roofs and flipping over walls, I would like to ask you how dangerous that is.

It's extremely rare for a parachute to just "not open," and it is usually the result of careless packing when it happens. You also have a reserve that has to be packed by an FAA-certified rigger. Not to mention your AAD that automatically fires if you become incapacitated. Non-jumpers don't realize that almost everyone who is killed or injured skydiving does so underneath a fully open and functional parachute. People don't die from equipment malfunction. People die when they get careless, complacent, or cocky and do something stupid underneath their canopy.

Check out group tracking. Two people head-to-head at 100 mph+. Myself and two friends in wingsuits did a head-to-head with vertical distance between us just to see the reaction time needed to spot and veer. No chance. From spot to passing each other was a couple of seconds. Seriously deadly.

Out of 3,000,000 made last year, there were 31 fatalities. That is 1 per 100,000 jumps. Sixty percent of those were under a perfectly good canopy but made low, dangerous turns or collided with another jumper. A couple were suspected suicides. So, actually, it is relatively safe. If your parachute malfunctions, your second chute can deploy extremely fast. This is why we train.

I would've voted for equestrian because I am an equestrian and I know that if we fall off, we could die. But, yeah, skydivers win my vote because if that parachute isn't opening, you're pretty much dead.

Let's compare a small horse-riding jockey to a lightweight MMA fighter. The MMA fighter would have enough strength to hold on to and control a horse, while the jockey would stand no chance in a fight. They're fragile compared to any MMA fighter and would get smashed! MMA fighters can take a hit and would have more than three times as much chance of surviving a fall from a horse as any jockey. MMA fighters can kill with their bare hands! First, let's see if any MMA fighter can ride a horse on a track without falling off. Then let's pit any jockey against an MMA fighter in a full-fledged match and see how long the jockey lasts. Jockeys can't beat MMA fighters!

I've participated in a lot of sports, mostly martial arts, throughout my life (I'm 38 now), and currently, I practice MMA. It is incredibly dangerous! It's not just the punches, locks, and chokes that are risky - these mostly result in minor injuries like facial, muscle, or bone damage. The other techniques are extremely brutal as well. A suplex throw can cripple or even kill you. A single elbow punch or knee kick can break your facial bones or even damage your brain. During training, wearing protectors is crucial, but in competitions, injuries are almost inevitable. It's unfortunate, but it's part of the sport.

I agree, MMA is a serious contact sport. Just look at what happened in the Anderson Silva vs. Weidman fight. That was instant damage occurring in the moment. And do I even need to mention the long-term damage, which includes head injuries that affect the brain? You also have to be extremely physically fit. In MMA, you use every part of the body. You need to be strong, flexible, and fast, unlike in other sports where you may only use your hands, feet, and maybe do some running.

I'm sorry, but seriously? MMA should be at least number 4 on this list! We use padding only because, without it, our bruises and injuries could put us in critical condition. I practice Taekwondo, which I know isn't the same as MMA, but in our sparring matches, at least two people end up injured or covered in bruises, even with minimal padding. Essentially, MMA is like street fighting, but with deadly kicks and leg power, combined with grappling and wrestling.

Rock climbing is easily one of the most dangerous sports out there. When you're on belay, you're relying on your equipment and abilities to stay alive, along with other people, especially your belayer, who literally has your life in their hands. If a piece of equipment breaks, or a rope snaps, you're dead. Free soloing is even more dangerous, without any equipment to break your fall. Many companies such as Cliff don't even sponsor many free climbers anymore, though many have amazing skills such as Alex Honnold. If you rate it out of 1/3 between climbing and other sports measuring how dangerous they are, climbing will be sure to surpass the other sports by far. I love climbing and am extremely passionate about it, but it is extremely risky.

Easily the most dangerous sport on this list, free climbing should be at number one. Bouldering in the climbing gym has led to finger injuries, neck injuries, back injuries, and most of all, foot injuries. That, however, is probably the safest category in this extremely variable sport. Even in the gym, lead climbing has resulted in permanent paralysis and broken bones in various places, like the arm or leg. With the next clip right at your chest and the previous one six feet down, you're looking at a fall that could easily give you whiplash. But these circumstances don't even come close to outdoor free climbing. On a multi-pitch route, you rely on your skills and equipment to keep you alive. Bolts may not be drilled in correctly, carabiners may be poorly designed, and rockfall or loose holds may be extremely common. Any of these factors could lead to death. Not only is this sport one of the most physically demanding, but it is also one of the most mentally challenging. You might be at ...more

Free climbing should easily be #1. Most people won't climb a tree to the top, let alone a vertical rock. Angles 90 degrees or more, no ropes... Thousands of feet up. How is horseback riding anything compared to this? This should be judged based on the consequence of making a mistake. You make a mistake horseback riding or cheerleading, then yes, you can get hurt. I'm not saying there is no danger, but you make a mistake free climbing and you're paralyzed from the neck down - consider yourself lucky.

Free climbing (rock climbing) can get someone extremely injured or even maybe killed! If you are on belay and something goes wrong and the person accidentally drops you... I went on a few other websites and they said rock climbing was either number 3-5... That doesn't even mention when someone's free solo climbing! That's when you climb with no rope whatsoever! I think this website is completely underestimating free climbing on so many levels.

Much harder than it looks, easily #1. You must make a jump, and then steering is extremely difficult to control. If you don't steer well, you will run into the edge of the cliff and die.

You must open the parachute at the right angle, time, and place if you want to stay alive. Then, you must control your para-suit so that you land in the correct spot.

The landing is also very dangerous. You could get seriously injured.

Famed base jumpers like Steve Sutton died only one year ago from a miscalculation in his wingsuit, striking an alpine ridge at approximately 150 mph. His body was so severely damaged that DNA tests needed to be executed to determine it was his body.

More people than you think have met their demise through base jumping. It's an incredibly dangerous sport and profession. Anyone is susceptible.

BASE jumping is much more dangerous than any other sport on this list. How is cheerleading on this list? First of all, it isn't even a sport, and second, more people have died from BASE jumping than from cheerleading. Actually, more people have died from BASE jumping than from almost any sport.

BASE jumping should be first on the list because you have a much better chance to die than in any other sport on here. This guy died testing out a parachute. I personally think it's more dangerous than skydiving because you can run into the edge of a cliff more easily.

In rugby, people are intentionally trying to bring you down, plus you have no protection. Getting stepped on by a 180-pound man with cleats doesn't feel good. Yes, sports like motocross are dangerous, but in motocross, people aren't trying to hurt you. For every rugby game you play, there is a guarantee that you will be sore, and if you're lucky, you won't be injured. Imagine running at full speed and then having another person running full speed tackle you from the side. The impact on your spine and ribs is brutal. It knocks the breath out of you and makes you feel like throwing up, but you have to keep running and keep tackling. Rugby is not for the weak, and it is dangerous, no doubt. Not as dangerous as skydiving, but certainly more dangerous than soccer, cheerleading, and motocross!

Scrums can be pretty dangerous if they fall apart. I was in the second row of the scrum. Once the scrum fell apart, my left arm got jammed between two people and was forced up while the rest of my body continued downwards. I very nearly broke my arm that day. I also had a scare when, after a hard tackle, I felt my neck pop and could have sworn right then that I had broken my neck. Luckily, that was not the case, but it still cost me the rest of the game. I have seen someone's leg broken during a game before. The thing is, this game can be safer if North American players learn to love the sport of Rugby for the game and not the hitting. Communicate with your team, work together, and if you're going to hit, hit smart.

What's this ridiculous theory about NFL players running harder because they have pads? Laugh out loud. Obviously, a theory made up by people who have never seen a State of Origin, or any Rugby League for that matter.

It relies on the premise that Rugby League players aren't already running and tackling as hard as they can, when they clearly are.

Also, Rugby League is designed in a way that players run head-on with each other every play, not at all different angles across the field. They line up, sprint at each other, collide, get back up, and do it again.

For 80 minutes non-stop, none of this stop-start, change-teams nonsense. It's about endurance as well as skill and power, and fatigue also causes injury.

Rugby League is definitely the most dangerous sport. Just check the number of injuries and time spent out of play on average each year. It's much higher than any other sport.

Last year, a 16-year-old was killed trying to make a tackle by putting his head in the wrong position. Even in the lower age groups with not much power, there is always a risk of serious injury.

The toughest and most dangerous sport in the world.

If it were played in America, it would be number one on this list (they probably think of Rugby Union instead of Rugby League). As you can see, the top seven sports are all prominent there. This is the first one that isn't.

I've never been surfing, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be dangerous. Like, what if you didn't find the right spot to surf and big waves rush up to you and you drown? There might also be dangerous creatures if you go too far into the ocean.

Anything could happen to you when surfing. It could be a normal day and you go for a wave and fall, and this time you hit your head on a rock or sandbar. It is unpredictable. Just the slightest shift in the wind can decide whether you'll come out the way you went in. Your board could pop up and hit you. You can cut your face, foot, leg, etc. You can get held underwater and drown. And then, of course, there are sharks and other fish in the water that could mistake you for a meal. Surfing is so unpredictable, which makes it such a dangerous sport.

I recently watched the film Soul Surfer on my DVD player. The film features a professional championship surfer, Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb), who had her right arm bitten off by a massive tiger shark, but that didn't stop her from achieving her dream of becoming a surfer. Inspired by a true story, Soul Surfer is based on the book of the same name by Bethany Hamilton, published by Gallery Books but produced by MTV Books, a sublabel of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International. You can find this book in the children's section at Barnes & Noble.

I've seen numerous surfing injuries, including encounters with sharks, stingrays, and jellyfish. Surfing can't be compared with all those you call dangerous sports. You can also get hit by rocks or reefs, resulting in fatal or really painful injuries. Surfing those huge waves like Mavericks is super dangerous because you have the reef, the rocks, the cold water, the sharks, and the wipeouts. That's probably the most dangerous or one of the most dangerous sports on this list.

How is this not at #1 or close to that? Okay, cheerleaders, see you on the mountain. Let's really put you to the test. So basically, to start out, you save up a few thousand just to start. Then you fly 5,000 miles or so to your destination. Then you take a never-ending hike up the mountains and through all the villages with 30 pounds on your back the entire way. Finally, you make it to the mountain, out of breath and sweaty but cold. As time goes on, air becomes more and more of a need until you're taking 20 steps with one breath. You can't even enjoy yourself once you get to the top because you have to rush back down due to the lack of oxygen. This may sound like it's a two- or three-day trip. Try two or three weeks, or even months depending on the weather. You stick to your competitions. We will stick to our goals to survive.

Okay, first of all, we have to set some boundaries here. What defines dangerous, and what defines sport? Do we conclude that it's the number of deaths that makes it dangerous, or the number of injuries? It would be almost impossible to account for the number of injuries in any sport, so let's go with fatalities. Now, horseback riding is a hobby, whereas horseback racing is a sport. Yet both have had numerous fatalities. Horseback racing has had 26 documented deaths that happened during a race. Boxing has had 57 documented deaths during or shortly after a bout due to the punishment received in the match. As someone pointed out below, there have been over 290 deaths while climbing Mount Everest. And that's just one of the nine 8,000-meter mountains that are climbed on a regular basis. Now add in some of the smaller peaks that have claimed lives, and we're probably looking at over a thousand fatalities due to mountain climbing. And yet, if I had to choose a sport, hobby, or profession ...more

Okay, so with some mountains, there is a 70-80% chance of death. Cheerleading has, at most, a 20% chance of death. Cheerleading would be cool if some of these girls would stop talking and try an extreme sport, instead of saying that cheerleading is the hardest thing ever. Climbing a large mountain requires tons of strength to carry 30-pound backpacks for some climbs of over 50 miles. Also, don't forget the fact that the air is so thin. You take about 10 steps very slowly before you can get a full breath of air. Really, come on, I'd rather be thrown and fall from 15 feet in the air onto a mat than fall 2000 feet onto cold, hard spikes that shoot up from the ground.

If we consider life-or-death issues, mountaineering is up there. Close to 300 people have died attempting to climb Everest alone. Well over a thousand deaths have occurred during climbs of 8-thousanders, and plenty of deaths in smaller climbs as well.

As a percentage of people attempting the climb, fatality rates in mountaineering are far higher than they are in any of the sports listed in the top ten.

And if we compare the seriousness of injuries, one should remember that a broken bone or trauma occurring during a climb is made far worse by the lack of access to medical services. If you break a body part while cheerleading, you are rescued within seconds, and minutes later, you are in the emergency room.

Cheerleading is tough and very challenging, but fortunately, it's not even close to being one of the most dangerous sports.

Cliff diving is quite dangerous if you know how to land, but at the same time, it's quite fun. I've been cliff diving before and it was amazing. People should just be aware of their surroundings: rocks, shallow waters - you get the point.

Diving in general is dangerous. If you do it wrong, you can get seriously hurt!

Jumping from a high cliff can give you a thrill... or a heart attack.

Hit, not it from before.

Of course it's a sport. It's in the sports pages, not the real estate pages. The brainless "not a sport" claim is actually meant to suggest that it's not an athletic endeavor. And it is a brainless claim to say that maintaining forceful yet precise and lightning-fast control of the car for over an hour, when g-forces are peeling the muscles off your bones at all times and the engine is roasting you, doesn't require superb fitness. Anyway, the American College of Sports Medicine studied this argument and put it to bed, saying that top race drivers are in fact "elite athletes."

I know lots of people consider motorsports not a real sport because you are just turning a wheel or riding a bike. The physical aspect is more hidden than in other sports, but it's definitely there. These guys have to be super fit in order to endure a race. For example, a Formula 1 race takes up to two hours - two hours where you have to perform at the absolute limit. I mean, they have to hold their bodies up to 6g. Normal people wouldn't last two laps around a circuit. And the mental part? Would you head straight for a wall at over 300 kph? Most people are afraid to go over 200. But that's car racing. Motorbike racing is, at least in my opinion, even more dangerous. They have a little bit of protection against the tarmac, but have you ever seen a high side? They are flying through the air at over 100 kph and land on solid ground. The sole reason the injury rates aren't that high is the limited spots in a race. In the average season, about 24 riders take part, and at least 2 or so ...more

Racing gets my vote, but only because of what it once was, not for what it currently is. No other sport that I can think of would have to include burning to death as a realistic risk of competition. However, it is way safer now than it was in the '70s and earlier, especially at the higher levels of the sport.

Racing should be #1 on this list. Heaps of legendary people have died doing what they love. In racing, small injuries are uncommon, but if someone gets hurt, you know it is really bad. Also, you're always on the edge. One small mistake and most times you're gone. It just has a very dangerous nature.

Besides the twelve-hour practices, dancers are constantly working. We have six-day weeks most weeks, all year round. Dancers never stop training. Injuries are common. Most will work through broken toes or torn muscles. I'm not going to compare dance to cheer, gymnastics, or figure skating because I believe we all deserve the top of the list. Dance is both an art and a sport. Bodies are destroyed by dance for the greatest reason: passion. Dancers are incredibly flexible and have incredible core and leg strength. Most other sports have padding or only operate for one season, but not dance. Our work is without protection, all day, every year round.

As a dancer, I can tell you exactly how dangerous and painful it is. Flexibility is a small part of the pain a dancer encounters. Shin splints are so common, yet you still dance. I know people who dance on broken toes or feet and with torn calf muscles. Pointe takes an incredible amount of strength. You also have to have an extreme amount of coordination to dance around people. You constantly risk running into someone. Eight-hour rehearsals are regular for non-professionals, not to mention professionals who work twelve-hour days six days a week. Yet, we smile through the pain to give an incredible performance.

Dance is not only physically difficult, but also mentally difficult. In dance, you can't look like you are concentrating. You have to make everything look beautiful and effortless. In other words, you have to focus on two things at the same time, which increases the rate of injuries. You also have to bend yourself into shapes that you should NEVER bend into. You are like the choreographer's experiment, and chances are they don't worry about you getting hurt. That's up to you! You have to attempt many things that could permanently damage you.

Hi, I'm a dancer, and I think dance should have made your list since cheer and gymnastics were on there. There is a big argument between sport and art. Obviously, it's a sport. It's a physical activity and has some competition to it. Not to mention, you can seriously get hurt while dancing. Instead of lifting weights or other people, we have to hold ourselves up on only the ball of our feet for 5 minutes, as well as being en pointe. We choose to damage our feet because we work them so hard. I hope that you put dance on your list because it IS a sport.

Not just specifically mountain biking but DOWNHILL/FREERIDE. It's the most intense sport I do and definitely the most exhilarating. Snowboarding does not produce the same amount of adrenaline (yes, not just groomers but the terrain park). One slip-up and it's very easy to get injured. Even more dangerous than motocross, in my opinion. DH is a growing sport and you will definitely hear about it in the future.

Should be number one. Obviously, people haven't been stupid enough to try it, eh guys? That moment when you do a jump off a small cliff and you fall, you stand up with your hand feeling bruised. You brush it off, ride down the hill with your bike, and later the next day find out you broke your hand. We pretend we are not hurt on MTB, unlike football where they cry over a graze.

Why is this right at the bottom?! I do downhill biking, and honestly, most of my mates have had a broken bone or two in the past two years. Combine 20+ mph speeds with incredibly steep, incredibly rocky terrain, then ride a mountain bike down it, and this is the sport you get! How is football more dangerous than this?!

Mountain biking should be way higher on this list. Loads of people have been killed or seriously injured coming off a jump. I myself did a small jump and the wheel twisted on landing, and I came off the bike and landed on it. My back hurt for weeks!

Whoever thinks freediving isn't dangerous, think again! Holding your breath for 5 minutes while swimming down to 70+ meters on a single breath of air in shark-infested waters! For starters, an average human will pass out after 3 minutes with no oxygen to the brain. A depth of 70 meters is a very long way down and requires as much mental strength as physical strength to reach it. "Horses are an unpredictable animal." Do you know what else is an unpredictable animal that is much more dangerous than a horse? Sharks. Consider this: what would you rather do - be 50 meters underwater with a great white shark swimming up to you, or racing a horse?

My dad is a free diver and he loves the sport. It takes a lot of training and patience. My dad has taken courses in Florida and trains at least four times a week. The deepest he has dived is 190 feet. A lot of people aren't aware of this sport. Not long ago, one of my dad's friends had a blackout while diving and died. It is extremely important that you never go free diving alone. Always have a buddy with you.

Many dangerous elements including limited air, extreme underwater depths, currents, poisonous snakes, sharks, getting stuck, blackouts, disorientation. If spearfishing, then we encounter excited sharks, barracudas, other predators, and entanglement. Did I mention all on one breath?

There are only about 5,000 free divers around the world. It's a unique sport. An estimated 100 people die from free diving every year. This is compared to an estimated 20 deaths per year from horseback riding, which is a far more popular sport.

With free diving, you are working against yourself.

Wow, luge is after walking? This is one of the most dangerous sports ever! If you flip over, have fun scraping your face off, and God knows what else. You go incredibly fast and you have little handholds to grab onto. If you slip, there go your fingers! If you do flip and go sailing through the air, no one knows if you'll land without busting your head wide open, or worse, death! How is walking more dangerous?!