Don't Believe The Hype

What is it with the obsession with so called "extreme" sports? Actually, what's with the obsession with the word "extreme"? What is it that makes a sport extreme? I think it has something to do with whether it's featured in soft-drink commercials.

A sport shouldn't be called extreme unless it stretches the participants to the absolute limits of physical endurance, or unless there's a chance it will kill you.

One particular problem - but as you'll see, not the only one - is the classic catches competition in the Australian One Day International Cricket Competition. It's not called classic catches anymore, it's now the "Fosters Lite Ice Extreme Catches".

Am I missing something here? Are cricket balls now stiched with razor wire? Do they explode if not caught? What's so extreme about someone taking a diving catch? It may be difficult, it may require agility and skill, but it ain't extreme. I'm sure I can see Richie Benaud cringe every time he introduces the segment.

Now to the "Extreme Games". Or should I say Pepsi Ads? Let's take a look at some of the sports featured in these events. In some cases rock climbing could be considered an extreme sport - free climbers are just asking to die - but on an artificial wall just a couple of metres high with an experienced belayer it's just climbing.

Skateboard vert ramp. Didn't this used to be called half-pipe? Haven't people been doing this for years before the marketing people opened the dictionary to the "ext..." page? Am I showing my age here?

Wake boarding. Extreme? Puh-lease! Sure it looks hard, I probably couldn't do it, but it certainly isn't extreme.

Sure, there are extreme sports. Canyoning kills multiple people every year, and quite often involves pushing yourself to limits. BASE jumping - as much as falling can be called a sport - is certainly extreme. But these sports can't really be used to sell soft drinks and computer games. Canyoning is rarely fast paced, and BASE jumping is illegal.

Remember this - soft drink endorsements, TV shows with "punk" music (don't get me started on that one) and video games don't make a sport extreme. The act of pushing youself to the limit of human endurance and the chance of severe injury or death should be the criteria for classifying a sport as extreme.