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There are a lot of different parts of a sport that make it extreme, whether it is the high stakes, uncontrolled environment, or will to face intense psychological and physical demands. Alex Hutchinson stated in their book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance “It is not about a reckless 'death wish,' but rather a controlled and methodical push against the boundaries of human endurance.” Hutchinson might argue that extreme sports are about expanding the human body’s capabilities; however, others disagree. Athletes who compete in other sports, such as X Games Backflips, openly talk about their sport, how it fuels them, and how it mentally challenges them. In an interview on ESPN, extreme athlete Travis Pastrana reflected after landing his first X Games backflip, "It scared me to death. It just doesn't make sense. You're still on your motorcycle at the height of the jump, going, 'this thing's not going to rotate around.' I knew it was possible. It just doesn't seem logical."
Though public opinion of extreme sports is varied, it is certainly an interesting topic. Scientific discoveries about the way extreme sports affect people are ongoing. There is so much to explore in this topic, including: what it feels like to take part in an extreme sport, what extreme sports are and what makes them so extreme, and the science behind an athlete’s mind.
The Red Bull Creepers
The Red Bull Creepers
Here’s one example of an extreme sport: on the 16th of August, 2025, magic happened on the Market Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For the first time in The United States since the event’s commencement, the Red Bull Creepers rock climbers competed in a Deep-Water Solo event. It was a rock climbing event where athletes climbed a difficult course screwed into the bridge’s underside, reaching about 20 meters before falling to the river below. It was all high stakes and danger, the bell ringing again and again as the climbers reached the top, then the sounds of splashing below.
The Red Bull Creepers Deep-Water Solo (also known as Psicobloc) event was first held in Spain in 2014, then again in 2021. This time, it was local in Chattanooga, and the event was intense. Competitors began in a quarter-final, eight women competing against each other on one side and eight men on the other, as the crowd of over 1,200 people sat, watching in the blazing sun. Slowly, the four winners of each gender were weeded out as their competitors fell off the wall or took longer than they did. The crowd cheered enthusiastically, and the announcers detailed every run. Climbers who fell off before they could reach the auto-belay (a rope that safely lowers the climber down without a human partner) came out of the water with red marks from the fall. After the short break due to the weather, the athletes began again. The men and women competed in the semi-finals of the competition, and then it was down to two competitors remaining for each select group. Julia Chanourdrie, a French professional rock climber, competed against Julija Kruder, a Slovenian professional rock climber, on the route set on the underside of the bridge. Through treacherous heat and dynamic moves, Kruder secured the win, riding the auto belay down to the water. According to the Redbull article about the event, Krudar remarked, “So this one was a bit tougher than the last one, especially.
Picture of Julija Kruder, Julia Chanoudrie, Katja Debevec, and Afra Hönig depicted on the Red bull website.
Because the competition was harder. The route was much harder. So when the route is tougher and it’s at some height, your mind is playing games with you, so it was really stressful. At some point, some of the competitors took some bad falls. So, my head was overthinking, but I think I always felt comfortable on the wall, confident and safe. I just trusted my feelings and I’m really happy with the last go."
After the women competed with such strength, the men began to traverse over to the route by boat, prepping their hands and muscles for the climb ahead. Both began at the start, racing up the wall until one prevailed. Romanian Darius Râpă claimed the crown after competing against Mikel Linacisoro, a Spanish climber known for his talent in racing. Both groups competed so well in this extreme sporting event. The adrenaline and thrill in each move made this day so memorable for Chattanooga.
Science Behind the Thrill
Science Behind the Thrill
Extreme sports are big for everyone involved. Athletes who participate are often labeled as “thrill seekers” or “adrenaline junkies,” but what actually happens in the brain when people are doing these crazy feats of athleticism? Why do they do it? And, most importantly, what effect does it have?
Adrenaline is the main factor in any extreme sport. It is a hormone produced in the body and released into the bloodstream during stressful situations. For athletes, adrenaline is a tool– sometimes an addiction. According to the National Library of Medicine, when participating in their sport of choice, athletes commonly feel excited and fulfilled. This is likely because of the dispensal of adrenaline to the brain and body, which becomes linked to a pleasurable feeling over time for people who participate in extreme sports. In the case of “adrenaline junkies,” they can even get symptoms of withdrawal when they’ve gone too long without doing something that gives them adrenaline.
Studies have found that there are links between a person’s level of athleticism and their personality. Athletes often gravitate towards extreme sports because of some underlying quality that makes them desire a thrill. Then they get into a sport and begin putting in the required discipline afterward.
Interestingly, some links can be made to someone's specific personality traits depending on how risky their sport is. The National Library of Medicine also states “Qualitative data in extreme sports highlighted that participants described the contact with nature as central, more significant, and powerful. Participation in extreme sports seems to affect well-being, physical and psychological traits positively.” The obvious benefits of most extreme sports (although not exclusive to them) are the endorphins that are released during any physical activity, and the positive link between good mental health and more time spent outside.
Extreme sports can contribute to positive character traits like confidence and leadership. According to the study “Monasterio E, Cloninger CR. Self-transcendence in Mountaineering and BASE jumping. Front Psychol,” “High-risk sports tend to obtain high scores in emotional stability, conscientiousness, and energy. In contrast, openness followed the gradient: high-risk sport < non-athletes < non-risk sports.” The findings of this study suggest that people who play extreme sports are emotionally stable and energetic. On the contrary, these athletes are also the most closed off.
There are also some negative personality traits associated with extreme athletes. In non-professional extreme sports, athletes are frequently found to have struggles with impulsivity and alexithymia (problems recognizing and expressing emotions). Many athletes also understandably get anxious about the performance of their sports. Fear is a motivating factor in extreme sports, which can badly affect participants. The physical risks of these activities are the most notable, with fatal or serious accidents happening more commonly in extreme sports than in low-risk sports.
As healthcare professionals, doctors have an opinion on extreme sports that holds more weight than the average person’s. Medical doctors’ consensus on extreme sports is sometimes unclear, but there seems to be a general theme: they can be very beneficial when done with a hefty amount of caution.
No one can argue that things like BASE Jumping or Free Solo Climbing up a mountain are particularly safe. They can, in fact, be extremely dangerous and fatal. However, doctors seem to agree that extreme sports have a massive amount of benefits when performed carefully and with fear.
Examples of BASE Jumping and BMX Biking, from Shutterstock
As Eric Brymer, a PhD who studies adventure sports and their physiological/ psychological effects, says, “There are parts of the experience that I could only describe as ineffable. There are senses of freedom, there are senses of floating, flying, time standing still, and sensory capacities expanding. You can see things and hear things much clearer whilst you’re involved in those sports than you can in everyday life.” The sense of simultaneous freedom and purpose that adventure sport athletes report is invaluable to them. Extreme sports can give participants life skills and lessons that are difficult to get anywhere else.
Volcano Boarding With an Amateur
Volcano Boarding With an Amateur
Annabella Graffius, a fifteen-year-old student at Chattanooga High Center for Creative Arts, got the opportunity to participate in volcano boarding during a week she spent in Nicaragua and form her own opinions on extreme sports. Before this, she was never planning on participating in anything of the sort. Here’s her story:
During the summer of 2025, I got the opportunity to go to Leon, Nicaragua. While I was there, I got the privilege of trying an extreme sport—volcano boarding. We hiked for an hour up the volcano, took some pictures, and then prepared to board. The volcano itself is 728 meters (2,388.45 feet) high. The volcano, Cerro Negro, is considered active but hasn’t erupted since 1999.
As someone with a deep fear of heights, I was by no means planning on flinging my body at 40mph down the side of an active volcano, but with the encouragement of my group, I did it anyway. My nerves started at the bottom of the mountain as I was face-to-face with the hill I would be going down.
While I felt like I was going to throw up, the sights hiking up were so beautiful, and the wind wasn’t bad either. Many of us paid for a worker to carry our boards up for us, which was such a blessing. At the top, they took our stuff and gave us our boards.
We had a tour guide who taught us how to control our speeds: sit up to go slow, lean back to go fast. “Well, I’ll sit up as far as I can,” I thought to myself. There were two lanes, though only one person went at a time. Our guide told us that because of the natural curve of the mountain, the left lane was slightly faster than the right. Most kids wanted to go the fastest—I was not one of those kids.
So there I was, about the seventh one to put their trust in gravity, sitting up straight in the right lane. My heart was racing, I felt like I was going to cry, but I took a deep breath and pushed myself forward. A smile instantly swept away my fear as I soared 41 degrees downward.
Two minutes in, I was almost to the bottom when I hit an obstacle. I don’t actually remember these next few details, but this is how I imagine it went: My board hit a bump, sliding it sideways, out from under me; my shoulder hit the ground as I—in slow motion—flipped three times in the air, every part of me touching the gravel at some point.
Now, back to where I remember clearly, my mouth was filled with volcanic gravel, and I muttered a word I will not repeat. I was filled with adrenaline and was not feeling any pain when I stood up and extended a thumbs-up in the air for the people at the bottom of the hill to see. I grabbed my board and ran over to them, laughing and saying, “I just went down a freaking volcano! That was crazy!” A friend said I sounded high because I couldn’t contain my laughter.
Though I was not worried about my fall, each of the people around me were pale with horror. The group leader took my photo, and it was then that I wiped sweat off my lip, realizing it was blood. This didn’t shake me like it probably should have because one adult told me to rush back to the van with her to clean myself up, and I told her no. I told her I was going to wait for my friend to come down because I would not have gone down without her encouragement (shout out to Madelyn). So I stood there and watched this rock star slide down, looking so cool.
I got myself cleaned up after a quick photo shoot and still wasn’t feeling any pain, but I did find out that I was not going slow, not at all. I took off so fast, was leaning back, and flew down faster than anyone else in my group (which is such a brag because all these teenage and adult men were actually trying).
In Nicaragua, the roads are very bumpy and almost nonexistent. As the adrenaline wore off we were bumping up and down in a bus on an hour journey.
The pain hit like a bomb.
I felt one of the worst pains I have ever felt in my life as I sat in the back of that van. I couldn’t say a word or else I would start crying uncontrollably; I couldn’t make eye contact with anyone or else I would start crying uncontrollably. This was a downfall in itself because multiple adults had pain medication I could have taken if I had asked. The only thing that really kept me sane on that bus ride was the anecdotes shared between my three friends I had made.
I was scratched up, exhausted, and miserable.
As for today, September 3rd, 2025, I have a small scar on my upper lip and a large scratch on my nose that I am putting cream on and praying doesn’t become a scar.
Overall, 10/10 experience. Definitely recommend, though I, personally, would probably not do it again.
Between those who watch extreme sports, those who participate for leisure, and those who compete, what defines an extreme sport may vary. Britannica defines extreme sports as “sporting events or pursuits characterized by high speeds and high risk.” It goes on to explain, “extreme sports operate outside traditional mainstream sports and are celebrated for their adrenaline-pumping thrills.”
Mehgan Heaney-Grier: Extreme Diver
Mehgan Heaney-Grier: Extreme Diver
Mehgan Heaney-Grier has a unique perspective on extreme sports as a world-renowned free diver. In her early twenties, she had a show on Animal Planet and even did a stunt for Hollywood. Heaney-Grier devoted a lot of her time to creating an equal space for women in the free diving community. She has also beaten multiple records and topped herself repeatedly.
In an interview with her, she reveals context and knowledge about her extreme sport and her relationship with it. After being asked what her sport was and how her competitions work, she shared this: “I established the first-ever US freedive record for both men and women in the constant weight category in 1996 with a dive to 155 feet. In 1997, I bettered that record with a dive to 165 feet.” Her explanation of free diving is intriguing, shedding light on some of the inner workings of the sport and her experience with it.
Extreme sports can be very dangerous, but also very freeing. Mehgan has had her fair share of injuries herself. The variety of injuries you can get from freediving is wide, from dangers in the water to poor preparation and not listening to your body. Mehgan states that before going down to train in the water, she was very congested, and after pinching her nose on her mask too hard, the pressure built up, causing a black eye.
She also describes an injury she got very early in her career, something called Shallow Water Blackout. The National Library of Medicine explains that Shallow water blackout is a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive in shallow water. It is typically caused by hyperventilating just before a dive, which lowers the carbon dioxide (CO2) level and delays the diver's urge to breathe. Even though both were experienced early in her career, these injuries both impacted her by showing her that free diving safety is the largest priority.
When asked why she competed, she replied, “I competed to push my limits and go beyond my comfort zone. To see what I was capable of and what I could do.” Competing and setting her record, then a year later beating it, just proves how pushing limits and bounds impacts Heiney-Grier in her sport and pushes any extreme athlete to their fullest potential.
There has always been the lifelong question of what makes an extreme sport different from a regular sport, exactly where the line is drawn. In free diving there isn’t a lot of publicity, and the only ones to compete were foreign men, but after she took charge and changed the standard, she noticed it was deemed extreme. She soon explained, “The more mainstream a sport gets, the less extreme it becomes.”
She also notes that it works the other way; once her records were set and beat, lots of eyes were on it. However, after a short while with the media no longer being fed information about her accomplishments all the time, everyone lost interest. Especially in the 70s and 80s, it was a clear example of lost publicity.
After discovering what extreme sports are and all the different sciences behind them, it is possible to understand how these activities can shape people into better athletes and competitors. Even if a sport is dangerous and might have a fatal outcome, it also boosts endorphins and makes the athlete stronger, braver, and all around more confident, making the athlete feel like they truly belong. Mehgan never felt like she belonged in the sports world when trying soccer and basketball, but as she kept trying, she found free diving, and it changed her life.
Though danger is present, many people consider extreme sports “worth it.” This is shown when Annabella exclaimed that she never felt more alive while volcano boarding. The physical and psychological bounds pushed by these sports force us to try something new and take a leap of faith. No matter how carefully coordinated a dangerous sport may be, it will always be a thrill-seeking adventure waiting to be explored.
By: Annabella Graffius, Jay Brown, Stella Fahey
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