USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    China
    Home / China / World

    Fans of extreme sports play a dangerous game

    By Agence France-Presse in Paris | China Daily | Updated: 2014-08-27 06:59

    Leaping, running and flying into the unknown are attracting a growing band of followers ready to risk life and limb for the ultimate adrenaline rush.

    In events that include base jumping, in which devotees jump off a cliff or tower with a parachute, the sky has become the limit for extreme sports.

    The death toll has also taken off.

    About 20 people a year are now killed while base jumping or gliding while using winged jumpsuits. The United States and Switzerland have had the highest casualties, with each recording more than 50 deaths since specialist groups started keeping statistics in the 1990s.

    In France, four jumpers have lost their lives since the start of August.

    Numbers have gone up along with the popularity of the daredevil pursuits. And both followers and victims have become increasingly high-profile.

    In August 2013, British stuntman Mark Sutton, who parachuted into the London Olympics opening ceremony dressed as James Bond, died in a wingsuit accident in Switzerland after jumping from a helicopter.

    US citizen Brian Drake, one of the leading international wingsuit fliers, died in April along with well-known jumpers Dan Vicary of New Zealand and Ludovic Woerth of France.

    The three leapt from a helicopter thinking they were jumping into a gorge, but fell onto an Alpine pasture before they could open their parachutes.

    Once limited to a small club, extreme sports have taken off as technology develops and restrictions or security constraints in everyday life become ever tighter.

    Bungee jumping and delta plane gliding were the frontiers until the 2000s, when the rise of social media brought the really extreme sports out of the shadows.

    "Today a lot of the people in these sports put themselves in videos, and that changes everything," said Nicolas Cazenove, a specialist in clinical psychology and health at the University of Toulouse-Jean Jaures in France.

    Now videos of wingsuit jumps down mountainsides are all over the Internet.

    Risk seekers

    "There is a narcissistic side that did not exist in the past when the practices were more closed," Cazenove added.

    "The risks are being increased because once everyone has done something spectacular, you have to move on to something even riskier."

    The technology and the equipment for extreme sports are now widely available.

    A wingsuit jumper leaps from a plane or off a mountain in a suit that adds surface area to the body, enabling the jumper to glide like a bird before opening a parachute to complete the jump safely.

    A wingsuit can be bought for as little as $500, and a beginner's course for $1,950. It can take years to master the art safely, however.

    Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner went up 39 km into space to jump to Earth in a pressurized wingsuit, making global headlines in October 2012.

    One year later, Alexander Polli, an Italian-Norwegian daredevil, leapt from a helicopter and reached speeds of up to 250 km an hour as he hurtled toward and through a cave opening in Spain barely wider than he is tall.

    "There is an unbridled inventiveness," Cazenove said.

    "Also, our society is imposing more and more physical protection and speed limits on everyday life and in sport. Extreme sport followers are looking for niches" in the rules, he said.

    Overwhelmingly male

    Cecile Martha, a researcher in social psychology at the Institute of Movement Sciences, Aix-Marseille University, monitored about 40 base jump followers - out of about 200 registered in France - for 18 months.

    Martha, a specialist on risk-taking in sports, said that nearly all are males "who feel the need for powerful, higher-than-average sensations".

    "They are not impulsive, however," the researcher added. "They go about it in a very meticulous way, and those who have the most accidents are the impulsive ones."

    Cazenove also said that base jumpers and wingsuit fliers "do not get enough highs from daily life".

    "More than seeking a confrontation with death, they have a desire to feel extremely alive," the psychologist said.

    Editor's picks
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    在线综合亚洲中文精品| 永久无码精品三区在线4| 欧美日本道中文高清| 亚洲AV无码专区国产乱码4SE| 中文亚洲欧美日韩无线码| 无码少妇一区二区| 最近2019中文字幕一页二页| 中文字幕7777| 欧洲精品久久久av无码电影| 最近高清中文在线字幕在线观看| 久本草在线中文字幕亚洲欧美| 亚洲AV人无码综合在线观看| 中文字幕无码不卡免费视频| 久久精品亚洲中文字幕无码麻豆| www无码乱伦| 免费人妻无码不卡中文字幕系| 无码国产精品一区二区免费式影视| 日韩一本之道一区中文字幕| 免费A级毛片av无码| 中文字幕乱码人妻无码久久| 日本在线中文字幕第一视频| 亚洲av综合avav中文| 亚洲AV中文无码乱人伦| 国产激情无码一区二区三区| 日韩人妻无码精品久久免费一 | 天堂√中文最新版在线| 日韩成人无码影院| 熟妇人妻中文a∨无码| 亚洲日韩精品无码专区网站 | 欧美 亚洲 有码中文字幕| 国产精品午夜福利在线无码| AAA级久久久精品无码片| 国产精品亚洲а∨无码播放| 久久亚洲精品成人av无码网站| 无码丰满少妇2在线观看| 无码国内精品久久人妻| 小13箩利洗澡无码视频网站| 无码h黄动漫在线播放网站| 日韩乱码人妻无码中文字幕| 日韩AV片无码一区二区不卡电影| 亚洲AV日韩AV永久无码免下载 |