Extreme sport and the undergraduates

Abstract

Extreme sports attracts people for its sense of adventure, for the physical effort and courage, but most of all for the desire to face what seems to be extreme and unachievable for the human body. The main objective of this dissertation was to analyse in depth certain aspects of extreme sport, such as the origins of those disciplines and the emotions felt while practising those disciplines. The study was conducted between February 2000 and March 2001 and was carried out by distributing 5 50 questionnaires amongst the undergraduates and by conducting 18 interviews with athletes and instructors of the various extreme disciplines. The questionnaire was designed in order to gather information about the awareness of the undergraduates towards extreme sport, their participation in extreme sport, what are the most extreme disciplines practised by them, why do they practice them and what is their view towards the origin of extreme sport. Meanwhile, the interviews were designed to obtain an in depth picture of why extreme athletes practice extreme sport and what are the benefits gained by the people they instruct. The interviewees were also asked to try and describe their relationship with nature. Through the data analyses it was revealed that extreme sport arouses emotions that are not felt in any other ' normal ' sport. The analyses also revealed that there is a strong bond that ties extreme athletes to nature which has been inherited by our ancestors.