Exercise brings many benefits, from reducing tension and self-esteem to core and bone health. But they can also pose risks.
In extreme cases, elite athletes perform likely death-defying stunts at major sporting events, such as the Olympics. But which sports are the most dangerous for participants?And which ones are at risk of death?
These are difficult questions to answer because sports are not studied in the same way, which makes it difficult to compare them. Let’s start by looking at the statistics on non-fatal injuries.
In the United States, the most relevant sports and recreational activities with injuries are “training”, cycling and basketball, according to the National Safety Council. These statistics come from injuries that resulted in emergency room visits in 2023. Here, training is not defined. However, there is no separate category for running and the category covers injuries similar to those caused by training equipment, making it broad.
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American football is fourth on the National Security Council’s list, followed by basketball. That said, football produces the most injuries of any game consistent with 1,000 hours of participation, according to Ohio State University (OSU). The contender for the top game was hit by injuries.
The threat of concussion and upcoming brain injury in football players has also been highlighted in recent years. Similar attention has been paid to other high-impact collision sports, such as rugby, in which players collide at all levels of the game.
Carolyn Emery, professor and president of the Sports Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of Calgary, sees collision games as part of her work to prevent injuries in Canadian youth games. “Collision games are also our concussion risk. ” like all injuries that result in “lost time,” meaning time spent away from the game to heal, she said.
Statistically, there’s a higher rate of concussions in women’s sports than in men’s, Emery noted. On the youth side in Canada, women’s rugby produces the highest rate of concussions, followed by ice hockey and soccer. It’s not clear exactly why women appear to have more concussions than boys, but Emery says he suspects it’s possibly similar to any of the biological hotspots and the fact that “women are more likely to report fundamental symptoms. “
There is a link between sports with a higher incidence of head impacts, long-term neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, according to a 2024 study published in the journal Sports Medicine – Open. These sports include football, rugby and boxing: up to 20% of professional boxers suffer from chronic head injuries. An example is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive disease for which there is no available remedy.
Collision sports are not the only ones that pose a risk of head injury. Equestrian sports, such as horse racing, show jumping and polo, are the most common cause of sports-related head injuries among American adults, according to a 2024 OSU study. JAMA Network Open also found that horse riding is the most common cause of sports-related concussions in Europe.
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In-game deaths are rare, but they appear to be more likely in activities that pose a threat to an athlete’s head and neck.
For example, a 2021 study documented 320 horse-related deaths in the United States over a decade, an average of 32 per year. In 2023, PBS News reported that about two riders are killed each year and 60 of them are paralyzed by horses. racing.
Boxing is another candidate for the title of the deadliest game in the world. A 2010 study found that there were approximately 10 boxing-related deaths a year worldwide. However, the authors noted that this figure is likely higher due to incomplete record-keeping. A 2011 survey estimated an average of thirteen boxing deaths per year, CNN reported. These figures come with amateur and professional boxing, but most boxing-related deaths occur at the professional level.
The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research documents soccer-related deaths at all levels of the game in its annual Soccer Related Injury Research Survey, and in 2023, another three people died from traumatic injuries. In addition, there were 10 oblique deaths due to exertion or medical situations, adding sudden cardiac arrests and situations such as heat stroke.
This research highlights that all sports-related deaths are due to collisions. Notably, only two athletes (a marathon runner and a cyclist) died while competing in the Olympics. In both cases, the deaths were attributed to heat stroke or heat exhaustion, Quartz reported.
The death of a cyclist at a 2016 Paralympic Games festival has been attributed to cardiac arrest following a fall. Other Olympic athletes, in addition to those competing in bobsled and downhill skiing, died in educational sessions held before the Games.
Sports and recreational activities performed in water carry a risk of drowning, even at elite levels. Drowning is a leading cause of death among youth in the United States, with an average of 11 fatal drownings per day. And although it is rare, adult athletes can pass out underwater, causing near-mortality and even death.
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Studies and reports provide overall numbers of game deaths over several years or consistent with the year rather than rates based on the number of participants. Most figures do not take into account the long-term effect of games, which causes a high effect on collisions, which can shorten the lifespan. This makes it tricky to directly compare deaths in what appear to be the deadliest games, such as boxing and horse racing.
However, if we also talk about animal health, horse racing is by far the deadliest sport, given that many horses die or are euthanized each year in the United States due to race-related ailments and injuries.
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Patrick Pester is a freelancer and former editor of Live Science. She has a background in wildlife conservation and has worked with endangered species from around the world. Patrick holds a Master’s degree in International Journalism from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom.
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