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
    色婷婷综合久久久久中文| 精品久久亚洲中文无码| AV色欲无码人妻中文字幕| 国产成人无码精品一区在线观看 | 亚洲欧美在线一区中文字幕 | 惠民福利中文字幕人妻无码乱精品| 欧美中文字幕无线码视频| 日韩人妻无码精品一专区| 亚洲日本中文字幕天天更新| 无码毛片一区二区三区视频免费播放 | 中文字幕无码无码专区| 久久精品天天中文字幕人妻 | 成人无码区在线观看| 伊人久久精品无码av一区| 亚洲欧美日韩中文字幕一区二区| 精品无人区无码乱码毛片国产| 亚洲精品无码AV人在线播放| 少妇中文无码高清| 亚洲日韩乱码中文无码蜜桃臀网站| 国产在线无码视频一区二区三区 | 中文字幕国产第一页首页| 久久亚洲中文字幕精品有坂深雪| 亚洲AV无码一区二区一二区 | 亚洲AV无码不卡在线播放| 中文字幕乱码免费看电影| 精品亚洲综合久久中文字幕| 欧美日韩国产中文高清视频| 久久激情亚洲精品无码?V| 超清无码一区二区三区| 欧洲人妻丰满av无码久久不卡| 亚洲第一极品精品无码久久| 久久人妻无码中文字幕| 无码八A片人妻少妇久久| 午夜无码中文字幕在线播放| 中文字幕免费观看| 国产成人三级经典中文| 最近中文字幕高清中文字幕无 | 亚洲中文字幕第一页在线| 亚洲欧美精品一中文字幕| 中文字幕乱码人妻一区二区三区| 久クク成人精品中文字幕 |