Skiing

Almost everyone around the world enjoys sports in one way or another. Sports range from basketball, a team sport, to speed skating, to skiing. Sports are usually defined by the characteristics of the activity; good sports must be made of multiple strong attributes. These elements must make the sport enjoyable to all involved at many levels, to provide basic leisure, to test one's abilities and to develop the individual's mental and physical boundaries. Skiing includes all of the right elements to produce a perfect sport; it provides challenge at multiple levels, involves differing levels of risk and provides variety in activities.


Challenge plays an essential role in defining a sport; it provides the individual with the feeling of achievement in success. Skiing poses challenge even in its simplest foundations. Skiing on a poor quality hill, with icy snow and poor upkeep can sometimes create more challenge than a well-groomed slope. Skiing in the backcountry away from lifts and other people in freshly fallen snow provides an opportunity for the best of skiers to test the boundaries of their capabilities. Necessary to the sport of skiing, challenge plays an essential role but it only exists in the presence of risk.


For a skier to get the feeling of danger and excitement adrenaline must be flowing; no better way exists to release adrenaline than by taking a risk. Skiing provides opportunities to take risks in more abundance than most other sports. The higher number of risks creates a larger amount of injuries then in most other sports.   Wendy Fisher, a professional extreme skier, found out how easy it is to injure one's self during the world extreme skiing championships. "On her third training run for the downhill, on a frozen course on a frozen day, she caught 140 feet of bad air off a roller and missed the landing. She got a concussion, broke her thumb, strained both MCL's, bruised her ribs, her shoulder, and her ankle" (Kotler 68). A jump on a...