Top 10 Most Dangerous Sports!!
We love playing different kinds of sports and also watching players play. The stamina, passion, intensity, and chemistry make watching games worthwhile.
We have seen many players faint or get injured during the play.
Have you ever wondered what could be the worst injury in sport?
Even sports like cycling have a high fatality rate. Some sports are intellect-based. But, we know about many sports which require dominance and strength.
Players should be committed and skilled to make their plays stand out. Becoming a good player is not easy; you need to give your all during training, practice day and night, and perform best during games.
Getting injured and recovering is a part of a player’s life. Sadly, many injuries pull you down no matter how much you try.
Moreover, some injuries can haunt you for life or can be fatal.
Quick Overview
Name of Sport | Statistics |
10) Basketball | Five deaths per year |
9) Rugby | 4.59 deaths per 100,000 |
8) Animal Riding | Three deaths per year |
7) Motorbike Racing | 104 deaths from 1949 |
6) Skydiving | 0.99 deaths per 100,000 |
5) Running | 1.03 deaths per 100,000 |
4) Swimming | 1.77 deaths per 100,000 |
3) Boxing | 11 deaths per year |
2) High Altitude Mountaineering | Five deaths per year |
1) BASE Jumping | 43.17 deaths per 100,000 |
10) Basketball
Basketball includes a lot of jumping and sprinting. This makes your knees and ankle vulnerable.
ACL, PCL, spine injury, shin splints, knee pain, and many more can occur during a game.
Some people have died during a game because of cardiac arrest, heart diseases, accidental falls, and more.
Larry Bird is a very famous NBA player and one of the best power forwards in history. He says he won’t make it past 75, knowing he suffers from arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation.

About 1.6 million people get injured while playing basketball each year, and the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission has reported about 500,000 injuries to require emergency room treatment in a year.
Lastly, using the proper playing technique and technology can prevent most injuries.
Playing with proper shoes made for basketball, adequate maintenance of basketball court, physical and mental health checkups can help reduce such injuries.
9) Rugby
Undoubtedly, rugby is a collision sport with a high impact.
With two teams of 15 players and all players running towards the ball, this is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous sports.
This game needs a lot of strength and stamina to win.

Even with a helmet surrounding your head, a concussion can occur.
Not just that, there is also a high risk of sprain, ligament tear, slipped disc, joint, or muscle injury.
In rugby, injuries are common. Moreover, the probability of a player getting injured in a season can be as high as 90%.
Predominantly, players suffer from congestive cardiac failure, acute coronary syndrome, and arthritis.
All in all, rugby is a dangerous sport. So, caution and proper measures should be taken.
8) Animal Riding
Animal riding includes riding horses, ponies, mules, bulls, and donkeys.
The most common injuries in animal riding are head injuries and long bone fractures. Other injuries such as a sprain, lacerations, fractures, and soft tissue damage are prevalent in animal riding.

So, to reduce the chances of injury and accidents, it is recommended that you ride under supervision.
If you want to approach animal riding, you need to make sure to be adequately trained.
7) Motorbike Racing
First of all, it is racing of motorbikes so obviously, it is very dangerous.
The best motorbikes and bikers of all time come together in the race. Undoubtedly, many people get injured when traveling at a very high speed.

Crashes often occur in motorbike racing. So, only skilled and experienced drivers are allowed to participate.
There are different levels of racing, out of which Isle of Man TT is the most dangerous. This has caused 239 motorbike riders to lose their lives.
Head and neck injuries are common in this sport. Other effects such as muscle damage, biker’s arm, road rash, knee injury, etc., also occur.
Proper handling of all aspects of your motorbike is essential since even a tiny minor mistake can cost you your life.
The highest recorded speed of a racer is 356.4 km/hr.
6) Skydiving
Skydiving refers to jumping from an aircraft, experiencing freefall before landing with a parachute. An experienced diver supervises your dive to keep you safe.
The feeling of weightlessness and adrenaline together can make you sick and pass out.

Skydiving has an injury rate of 1.3/1000 jumps, and the fatality rate is 1/100,000 jumps.
Since it involves flying and free fall, the condition of weather affects the sport massively.
Divers reach the speed of 240-290 km/hr before unfastening the parachute.
5) Running
Running is a very efficient way to stay healthy, without the use of any equipment.
This helps improve the condition of health, fight obesity, build a solid and healthy body.
All in all, running improves one’s mental and physical health as a whole.

However, running excessively every day can put you at risk of overuse injury.
Other effects of running include itchy skin, dehydration, sore throat, runner’s high, muscle imbalance, body ache, exhaustion, and more.
With the repetitive strain to the same muscles and joints, the impact of running can be destructive. Another danger is that running causes harmful effects on the heart.
The injury rate is 50%, whereas the fatality rate is 0.5-2 per 100,000 runners.
Moreover, runners must be adequately hydrated during, before, and after a run to prevent hyponatremia.
4) Swimming
Swimming for an hour burns from 400 to 700 calories depending on the intensity of the technique used. Therefore, it is an effective way to lose weight and maintain a fit body.
Swimming improves flexibility, stability, and body coordination. Moreover, it promotes cardiovascular health, sleep schedule, and mental health.
However, there are many injuries that often occur in regular swimmers.

Swimmer’s knee, shoulder sprain, dehydration, soreness, neck and low backache, bicep tendinitis, rotator cuff tendonitis, inflammation in shoulders are some of the injuries that commonly occur.
The injury rate is 3.875 per 1000 hours of training.
On average, 3,536 people died from drowning annually from 2005-2014. Moreover, for children between 1 and 4, drowning is the number 1 cause of unintentional death.
So, to prevent injury and drowning, participants should be adequately trained.
3) Boxing
Boxing is a sport that includes punching your opponent. This takes place inside a square ring.
Before, boxing was called pugilism which means fighting with fists in Latin. Once a player is knocked down for 10 seconds, the game ends.

Since this is a game of fighting, it is clear that there is a high risk of getting injured. Common injuries in boxing include concussions, finger sprain, wrist facial injuries, fractures, and shoulder dislocation.
The rate of injury is 17.1 per 100 boxer matches.
Moreover, the fatality rate in boxing is 0.13 per 1000 participants.
Boxers are not allowed to strike in the back, back of the head, kidney, or neck. This is to prevent severe injury in players.
All in all, boxing is a high-risk sport and should be approached with caution.
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2) High Altitude Mountaineering
High altitude mountaineering refers to climbing a mountain at a high altitude.
It takes place above 8,000m, also known as the death zone.
The freezing temperature at the high altitude makes it is one of the most dangerous sport.

Altitude sickness is prevalent along with high altitude cerebral edema, frostbite, pulley tears, rotator cuff tears, subluxation, tendonitis, trigger finger syndrome.
Not just that, the weather and condition of the mountain highly affect the climb. Mainly deaths occur due to avalanches, falls, serac collapse, heavy snowfall, hypothermia, wind, and more.
The fatality rate is 3.08/1000 summit attempts, whereas; the injury rate is 5.6 injuries per 10,000 hours of mountaineering.
Approximately 800 people attempt climbing Mount Everest (highest peak) every year.
Moreover, dead bodies on mountain ranges are used as guideposts.
1) BASE Jumping
BASE jumping is a sport that includes jumping from heights. The BASE stands for buildings, antennae, spans, and earth.
BASE jumpers carry only one parachute for the fall. Low BASE jumps are performed below 200 ft, whereas high BASE jumps occur above 200 ft.

Many fatalities have occurred during BASE jumping, making it illegal in several countries.
Accidents like bruised knees, sprains, fractures, bruises, and wounds are common.
519,620 skydivers have lost their lives in the span of nine years from 2010 to 2019. In this span, 6.2 million jumps were performed.
The injury rate is 0.2-0.4% per jump whereas, the fatality rate is 0.04% per jump.
The highest jump of all time is 25,300 ft, performed by Rozov from Cho Oyu. Rozov passed away in an attempt at another BASE jump in Nepal.
All in all, it is the most dangerous and lethal sport.
FAQs
- Basketball causes the most injuries.
- The third leading cause of death is sports.
- Cheerleading is a sport.
- Wrestling is the first sport ever.