Breann Clauss-Walton
Mrs. Burke
English IV
December 17, 2013
Against Extreme Sports In today’s world, extreme sports are an integral part of human culture. An extreme sport is a competitive activity that causes and adrenaline rush (Kaiser). There are critics of this type of sport, however. Though these sports offer massive amounts of entertainment and excitement for people around the planet, they are a nuisance to society. Because of their high risk for injury and death, negative effects on impressionable, young children, and their consequences of losing friends, extreme sports should be banned from society. Each and every day, extreme sports athletes put their lives on the line, risking serious injuries or even death. Bob Drury, a paraglide pilot tells, “We do these things not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us” (Martin). The smallest mistakes can ruin any extreme sport athlete’s life (Candela). Kum Martin, the author of Reasons for Extreme Sports, states that most participants in extreme sports only think about that sport, not the life or death risk they are taking. A popular dirt biker, Stephen Murray, would probably have agreed with this statement. That is until he was in a crash and was paralyzed from the shoulders down (Rational Worldview). Another athlete, Kevin Pearce, received a traumatic brain injury during one of his accidents and can never return to snowboarding for the rest of his life (Rational Worldview). Unlike Murray, Pearce can walk but is struggling with some functions that the brain injury has responsibility over (Rational Worldview). Not only do these sports leave physical impressions upon the athletes that participate, they can also leave mental impressions upon younger children and teenagers, impressions which can jeopardize their futures. Did you ever notice young children tend to try to do what they see older friends and family do? A girl in seventh grade, Kristin, says everyone likes the new and improved (Wallin). She is right in saying this, but the new and