Thursday, November 11, 2004

Blood Sports 3

New sports and hybrids continually emerge, breakdancing, parkour, cheerleading, freestyle skydiving, wind tunnel acrobatics, inflatable track tumbling.

Who can predict what will emerge as a new sport? Why not insist that emerging sports areas forecast maximum allowable skills to minimise permanent disability or death and to prevent the exploitation of the young.

Where do we draw the line on how much punishment an athlete is expected to take for their sport and how is that influenced by how much money is in the sport... or how entertaining the prospect of the big crash is?

Lets compare life expectancies competitively in a range of sports and the injury/disability rate. Netball is supposed to be quite bad for knees etc, but does a competitive lifespan of 10 years make that better than aerial skiing with a 2 year lifespan? Or being a jockey?