Adventure & Extreme Sports
Sports set in unusual environments and often self-judged: skateboarding, BMX, parkour, climbing, mountaineering, skydiving, paragliding and BASE jumping.
37 sports in adventure & extreme sports.
Artistic Cycling
Choreographed judged cycling on a fixed-gear indoor bike — handstands, wheelies and pyramids to music.
BASE Jumping
Extreme parachute sport — jumpers leap from FIXED OBJECTS (Buildings, Antennae, Spans/bridges, Earth/cliffs) with parachute deployment during 3-15 second freefall. Coined 1978 by Carl Boenish. Iconic locations: Kjerag Norway, Perrine Bridge Idaho, Angel Falls Venezuela. ~40 deaths per year globally; one of world's most dangerous sports.
Bike Trials
Cycling discipline of hopping and balancing across obstacle sections — feet down cost points.
BMX
Bicycle motocross — high-intensity 20-inch-wheel bike sport spanning motocross-style racing on 8-rider tracks with jumps, and freestyle disciplines (park, dirt jump, street, flatland, vert).
BMX Freestyle
Extreme cycling discipline on 20-inch BMX bikes performing tricks, spins, flips, and grinds on parks (bowls, ramps, boxes), streets (rails, ledges, stairs), dirt jumps, or flatland — judged on difficulty, style, and combination.
BMX Racing
Sprint bicycle racing on a 400 m dirt track of jumps and berms, up to eight riders per gate.
Bouldering
Free-climbing discipline on short (typically <5m) rock walls or artificial holds without ropes — solved as short intense 'problems' requiring extreme power, technique, and creative movement, protected only by crash pads below.
Bungee Jumping
Leap from a high platform tethered by an elastic cord and rebound just short of the ground.
Canyoning
Adventure sport — descending canyons via combination of walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, swimming + rappelling. Popular in Alps, Pyrenees, USA (Utah, Colorado), Australia, NZ. Not competitive typically — recreational adventure activity. Requires technical equipment (harness, rope, wetsuit).
Caving
The recreational and technical sport of exploring caves — vertical work with ropes, cave diving and horizontal navigation.
Coasteering
Traverse a rocky coastline by scrambling, swimming through swells and cliff-jumping into deep water.
Cyclocross
Off-road cycling on a short mixed-terrain lap — jump barriers, run steep hills, ride again.
Downhill Mountain Biking
Timed solo descents of gnarly mountain tracks — dual-crown forks, huge travel and 60 km/h+ jumps.
Extreme Ironing
Iron creased shirts in the most extreme settings imaginable — mountain summits, underwater, mid-freefall.
Freerunning
Expressive movement discipline blending parkour with acrobatics — flips, spins and tricks over urban terrain.
Gravel Cycling
Long-distance cycling on unpaved gravel roads — the fastest-growing cycling discipline of the 2020s.
Handcycling
Cycling with the arms — a three-wheel recumbent bike powered by hand cranks. A Paralympic road event.
Hang Gliding
Air sport in which a pilot flies a rigid-framed delta-wing aircraft, launched by running down a slope, controlled by shifting body weight relative to the wing while suspended in a harness underneath.
Indoor Skydiving
Judged flight sport in a vertical wind tunnel — freestyle solo, dynamic pairs and formation four-ways.
Lead Climbing
Rope-protected climbing on a 15 m+ overhanging wall — one attempt to reach the highest hold within six minutes.
Modern Pentathlon
Multi-discipline Olympic sport combining 5 events over one day — pistol shooting, fencing, swimming (200m), equestrian show jumping, and cross-country running (3.2km) — designed for an idealized 19th-century military officer.
Mountain Biking
Off-road cycling on rugged terrain — encompassing cross-country (XC), downhill (DH), enduro, freeride, and 4X disciplines using specialised suspension bikes.
Mountaineering
Climb mountains — from summer alpine routes to expeditions on the fourteen 8,000 m peaks of the Himalaya and Karakoram.
Paragliding
Free-flight aviation sport in which a pilot launches on foot from a hill using a flexible fabric wing (paraglider) to soar and cross-country fly using thermals and ridge lift.
Parkour
Movement discipline — practitioners (traceurs) navigate obstacles efficiently through running, jumping, vaulting, climbing. Founded 1980s France by David Belle (parkour) + Sébastien Foucan (freerunning). FIG recognized 2018 (controversial — many traceurs oppose sportification). First FIG World Championships 2022 Tokyo.
Road Cycling
Bicycle racing on paved roads — from single-day Classics (Paris-Roubaix, Milan-San Remo) to three-week Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España).
Rock Climbing
Adventure sport in which climbers ascend natural or artificial rock walls using strength, technique, and rope safety systems in disciplines from bouldering to trad multi-pitch.
Skateboarding
Action sport in which riders roll on a skateboard performing tricks on street obstacles, ramps, and bowls, judged on difficulty, style, execution, and consistency.
Skydiving
Extreme sport of exiting an aircraft at altitude, freefalling through the sky, and deploying a parachute to land safely — includes formation, freestyle, canopy, and speed disciplines.
Slacklining
Balancing sport on a flat nylon webbing anchored between two points — tricks, distance and highline formats.
Speed Climbing
Head-to-head sprint up a standardised 15 m wall — top climbers reach the top in under 5 seconds.
Sport Climbing
Climbing routes with pre-placed protection — Olympic lead, boulder and speed formats.
Track Cycling
Olympic velodrome-based bicycle racing on a banked oval indoor/outdoor 250m track — includes explosive sprint events (200m flying, keirin, team sprint) and endurance events (individual + team pursuit, points race, omnium).
Ultra-Distance Cycling
Non-stop cycling races over 1,000 km+ — Paris-Brest-Paris, Race Across America, and the Transcontinental.
Unicycling
Riding sports on a one-wheeled cycle — track racing, freestyle, mountain (muni), basketball and hockey.
Wingsuit Flying
Aviation sport using specialized suit with fabric between arms + legs to enable horizontal gliding flight after skydive/BASE jump. Modern wingsuit invented 1994 by Patrick de Gayardon (France); commercialized 1998 Jari Kuosma + Robert Pečnik (Birdman). Glide ratios 2.5:1 to 3.5:1; horizontal speeds 100-250 km/h; extreme risk in proximity flying.
Zorbing
Roll down a hill inside a giant transparent double-walled plastic sphere — for time (hydro) or free-form fun.