Extreme athlete

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The term extreme athlete describes a person who moves in the border areas of sport or doing sports. It has a double meaning in sports science : on the one hand, it characterizes a person who engages in an unusual, highly demanding, often risky form of sport and, on the other hand, it characterizes a person who practices a certain sport extremely intensively and extensively beyond the normal level . Both features can also occur in conjunction with one another.

Characteristic

The material claim by the sport

The extreme athlete is not satisfied with practicing a sport that is accessible to a larger mass of venture athletes . When parachuting as it increases the demands on themselves and the sport, by having this dangerous extreme forms such as the base jumping , the water jump , the cavity jumping or swooping expanding or by the difficulty to record performances such as a space diving from 39 km altitude or the case with the speed of sound increased. Numerous sports offer the extreme athlete the opportunity to increase the level of demand according to their own performance expectations. Paragliding can be changed to acro-paragliding , rock climbing to free solo climbing , athletic long-distance running to ultramarathon , water jumping to cliff jumping from a height of up to 45 meters ( Acapulco ). The extremely risky "fun sport" balconing , which is under threat of punishment, or the artistic form of parkour can also be classified here.

The personal demands

Other extreme athletes are characterized by their extraordinary quota of training units, competitions and championships. They do not engage in dangerous sport, but practice their sport as a high-performance sport with constant claims to victories and records under extreme physical and psychological stress. Top tennis players train up to eight hours a day, and competitive swimmers swim several hundred kilometers a week in order to maintain their world-class level. Your position in the leaderboard, the observation in the media and the specified competition program require excessive work at the performance limit. Training intensity and training intensity lead to a professional exercise of sport, which is usually subordinated to professional training and private life.

In both forms, the extreme athlete is challenged to the utmost physically, psychologically, mentally and technically.

motivation

Extreme athletes are cross-border commuters . In their performance demands, they go to the limits of their own capabilities and to the limits of the technical possibilities of their sport. You try to expand this as far as possible. This leads to the release of adrenaline , which evokes feelings of happiness when one's own performance potential proves to be equal to the difficult task at hand, as the happiness researcher Mihály Csíkszentmihályi describes in his formula about flower life. In addition, after interviews and literature research, the venture researcher Siegbert A. Warwitz has put forward and analyzed nine theories that attempt to decipher the dangerous actions of extreme athletes arising from different roots.

Social relevance

Self-discovery

According to Warwitz's risk theory "Life in Growing Rings", the extreme athlete is primarily concerned with finding identity and realizing himself. He wants to realize the potentials that are built in him into skills and visible achievements. He wants to stand out from the crowd as a unique personality in an area in which he knows he is extremely competent. He would like to write his name in the annals of his sport and earn fame with it. In this grueling path, he has to take considerable risks and acquire the appropriate skills in risk management.

The extreme athlete follows a natural instinct of self-perfection that is indispensable for any human development, but which he exerts excessively. Aufmuth addressed the associated problems in the area of ​​extreme alpinism. Semler has provided a self-analysis for parachuting.

entertainment

Today's viewers of westerns , crime films and documentaries expect realistic depictions of dangerous events, such as fight scenes or car chases. So-called stuntmen , who are recruited from different disciplines of extreme sports, can do this. Even circus acrobats , jugglers , tightrope walkers often come from the field of extreme sports. Due to the considerable media interest in spectacular events, extreme athletes are now attracting a great deal of attention and thus a high market value, from which the best in their branch can also make a material living.

Scientific contribution

Although extreme athletes, according to Warwitz, are generally not primarily interested in scientific advances, these often result as a side effect. Some also use science to gain the necessary sponsors for their costly projects. For the parachutist Felix Baumgartner , his four world records were in the foreground of his ambitions. At the same time, however, he also needed space technology and space agencies to carry out his venture.

The courage and willingness to take risks of extreme athletes are partly thanks to the significant progress made by mankind:

Thus Otto Lilienthal with his pioneering flight tests pioneer of flying. He proved that, contrary to popular belief at the time, humans can learn and practice flying with suitable equipment.

Test pilots are now professionally experimenting with prototypes of new generations of paragliders, hang gliders or powered aircraft in extreme situations in order to discover technical weaknesses and make them safer for general sport and aviation .

High-altitude mountaineers such as Hermann Buhl , Reinhold Messner or Peter Habeler refuted the prevailing opinion of medical professionals that without additional oxygen, humans cannot penetrate the regions of the 8000er mountains without suffering irreparable physical and psychological damage. They thus provided practical evidence that the human organism is capable of higher performance than is generally assumed due to training and thus also served to gain knowledge in training science .

While the Weimar scholar and privy councilor Johann Wolfgang von Goethe still took the view that the speed of the stagecoach or the galloping horse was the highest speed that the human physique and psyche could cope with, Felix Baumgartner proved that humans can use intelligent technical aids even faster than sound can move.

Extreme athletes can become scientific support staff or scientists can become extreme athletes in order to gain new knowledge in their special field.

Rescue operation

Extreme athletes are also used in difficult rescue missions in the high mountains, in ship collisions under water, in special military units as combat swimmers or in daring hostage rescue operations .

Risk exposure

The risk exposure of extreme sports is to be classified as relative. A distinction must be made between “objective risk” (which results from the potential danger of sport) and “subjective risk” (which depends on the athlete's level of competence). The risk assessment is also often assessed differently by viewers and actors. It results on the one hand from a different experience in risk management, on the other hand from a projection of one's own state of mind, in which the personal fear level also plays a role. Since the extreme athlete moves in life- and health-threatening border areas, a realistic control of reason is of particular importance for him. Warwitz speaks in a picture of the gas lever, which inspires the extreme to realize his lifelong dream and the brake lever, which is controlled by reason and a realistic assessment of the situation.

Problem approaches

Health hazard

Almost all extreme athletes who have been in the top performance range for many years and strive from championship to championship, from record to record and who have to be in top form at all times, suffer consequential damage to their health, which is due to overloading of the musculoskeletal system ( overtraining , tennis elbow , knee problems Damage to the immune system ) as well as psychological overload with the consequences ( burnout , aggressiveness , drug tendency ). Iris Hadbawnik portrayed ten extreme athletes who exhaust themselves to the extreme.

Job problems

Despite special schools for high-performance athletes and widespread support from the state and private sponsors , some extreme athletes miss or neglect a solid professional training because of the time and energy-sapping commitment in their active time. Few outstanding top athletes, the deficits incurred by a subsequent career in their field of sport as a coach , official or journalist compensate. Others try more or less skillfully to secure a retirement income with investment strategies.

Integration problems

Extreme athletes are often loners. Their endeavors to differentiate themselves from their competitors sometimes lead to private and social isolation with serious problems. Similar to aging film stars, there is a risk that, with the decline in performance from the former media presence and celebrity, they will no longer find their way into a normal life, which can lead to depression , drug use and even suicides .

Ethical evaluation

According to Warwitz, the actions of extreme athletes elude a general, objectively tenable and even approximately consensus-based assessment. This depends on the one hand on the prevailing tendencies in a society (willingness to take risks, range of values, feelings of (in) security), and on the other hand on the specific personality structure of the individual ( philobatic or oknophile character type ). According to Warwitz, the decisive factor is less the fact of practicing an extreme sport than the ethical definition of one's own actions. He therefore differentiates between the gambler (the " thrill seeker "), who only strives for the thrill of living out an extreme situation, and the seeker of meaning (the " skill seeker "), who uses extreme sport as a means to achieve ethically demanding goals.

Single receipts

  1. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Ways of the car in sporty risk areas . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2., ext. Ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 53–96.
  2. ↑ Dean Karnazes: Ultramarathon: From the Life of a 24-Hour Runner , 2007.
  3. ↑ Iris Hadbawnik: To the Limit and Beyond. Fascination with extreme sports . 2011.
  4. ↑ Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi: The flow experience . Stuttgart 1996.
  5. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges . In: DAV (Ed.) Berg 2006 . Munich / Innsbruck / Bozen. Pp. 96-111
  6. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd ext. Ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 260–295.
  7. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Growing in the risk. From the contribution to your own development. In: Ding-Wort-Zahl 93 (2008), pp. 25–37
  8. ↑ Ulrich Aufmuth: On the psychology of mountaineering . 2nd edition, Frankfurt 1992.
  9. ↑ Gert Semler: The pleasure of fear. Why people voluntarily expose themselves to extreme risks . Munich 1997.
  10. ↑ Horst W. Opaschowski: Xtreme. The calculated madness. Extreme sport as a time phenomenon . 2000.
  11. ↑ a b Hellishly courageous - What drives the devil ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.podcast.de archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Interview with the venture researcher Siegbert A. Warwitz ( DRadio Wissen October 12, 2012)
  12. ↑ Goethe's letters IV.159.165 from the year 1825th
  13. ↑ Official FAI recognition of Baumgartner's speed record from March 2012 ( memento of the original from December 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English); Retrieved October 16, 2012.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fai.org
  14. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: What dare and risk mean . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd ed., Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 13-19.
  15. ^ S. Piet: Het loon van de angst ( The reward of fear ) Baarn 1987.
  16. ↑ Iris Hadbawnik: To the Limit and Beyond. Fascination Extreme Sports 2011.
  17. ^ Karl-Heinrich Bette: X-treme. On the sociology of adventure and risk sports . Bielefeld 2004.
  18. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Risk must want the essential . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd edition, Baltmannsweiler 2016, pp. 296–311.
  19. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Risk must be worthwhile . In: mountaineering . No. 3 , 2011, p. 40–46 ( bergundstieg.at [PDF; 637 kB ]).

literature

  • Ulrich Aufmuth: On the psychology of mountaineering . 2nd edition, Frankfurt 1992.
  • Karl-Heinrich Bette: X-treme. On the sociology of adventure and risk sports . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-89942-204-X .
  • Norman Books: Extreme: The Power of Will . Goldegg Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-902729-18-7 .
  • Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi: The flow experience . 6th edition, Stuttgart 1996.
  • Iris Hadbawnik: To the limit and beyond. Fascination with extreme sports . Verlag die Werkstatt, 2011, ISBN 978-3-89533-765-9 .
  • Dean Karnazes: Ultramarathon: From the life of a 24-hour runner . Riva Publishing House, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936994-38-4 .
  • Horst W. Opaschowski: Xtrem. The calculated madness. Extreme sport as a time phenomenon . Germa-Press Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-924865-33-7 .
  • S. Piet: Het loon van de angst ( The reward of fear ) Baarn 1987.
  • Gert Semler: The pleasure of fear. Why people voluntarily expose themselves to extreme risks . Heyne Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-12303-4 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior . 2nd ext. Ed., Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1620-1 .
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: From the sense of the car. Why people face dangerous challenges . In: DAV (Ed.): Berg 130. Munich / Innsbruck / Bozen 2006, ISBN 3-937530-10-X , pp. 96–111.
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: Growing in Risk. From the contribution to your own development. In: thing-word-number. 93 (2008), pp. 25-37.
  • Siegbert A. Warwitz: A risk must be worthwhile . In: mountaineering . No. 3 , 2011, p. 40–46 ( bergundstieg.at [PDF; 637 kB ]).

Web links

Wiktionary: Extreme sportsman  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations