Accidental death of a girl in winged flight after 95 caused heated discussion
Global extreme sports are never heartbeat
◎Wu Bingcong
Whether extreme sports originating in the West is a game for the rich, or showing the search for the value of life under rules and experience, perhaps everyone has a different answer.
Alpine skiing, skydiving, winged flying, cave diving, freehand rock climbing, these cool and blood-sounding projects all have a common name-extreme sports, most of which have emerged from Europe, and have attracted countless warriors over the centuries. Challenge to the limit. Some athletes know the risks, but they do not want to give up what they love; some mountaineering "old birds" regard each climb as the "enlightenment" of life, and rationally deal with risks to make them survivors. However, tragedies of American rock climbers being forced to amputate, 28-year-old girls parachuting and hitting trucks, and deaths of French skiers during training have also been staged, reminding people not to ignore the fatal risks behind extreme sports. Whether it is a professional athlete or an ordinary person who wants to experience a thrill, we must abide by the safety regulations of extreme sports and conscientiously make preparations before travelling.
At the same time, extreme sports are not equal to extreme coolness. Climbing to the extreme self-portrait taking pictures of high-rise buildings and high-altitude parkour jumping from the top of the building, they once performed tragedies in Russia and claimed the life of the young boy in the flower season. Any flaunting, follow-up, or brave exercise behavior is not only irresponsible for one's own life, but also contrary to the original intention of extreme sports.
The fatal risk behind speed and passion
Extreme sports have experienced a long time from the rise to the prevailing trend. The Norwegians living in the Arctic Circle began to enjoy alpine skiing first. According to legend, as early as 3000 BC, locals have already used skiing techniques to hunt in mountain forests. After that, this sport full of speed and passion became popular in Northern Europe, Russia and even the United States. It was not until 1936 that it became one of the Winter Olympic Games in Germany.
The modern alpine skiing competition is subdivided into track races, big curves, super big curves, downhill races and mixed ski races. Taking the downhill race as an example, the men’s athletes pass by the track and the difference between the starting and ending altitudes is 800. -1000 meters, it is necessary to continue to traverse densely distributed flag gates, the difficulty and challenge are self-evident.
The New York Times published a column for this challenging sport during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, introducing readers to "death and danger on the downhill." The author used the case of the unfortunate death of French skier David Poisson in training in Canada to discuss the risks of alpine skiing with readers. At the age of 35, Poisson was already a veteran of the battlefield, having won the bronze medal in the World Championships, when he was intensive training before the World Cup in a resort in Alberta. During a taxi, he accidentally hit a tree, then broke through two layers of safety nets and was killed at the scene.
The International Ski Federation stated in its condolences that Poisson has performed well since its debut in 2004. Many seniors in the ski industry have also expressed their condolences. Former French alpine skier Luke Alpande said sadly in an interview with the media that it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk of skiing downhill.
"We usually don't talk about this kind of danger," said Bryce Bennett, an American athlete who participated in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. "Because it doesn't help, if you talk too much about risk, it's more likely to become Reality." Canadian athlete Manuel Paradis confessed after an Olympic preparation training: "In the first few trainings after David's death, I admitted that this accident really shook my confidence."
Parachuting also rose in Europe. As early as October 1797, the French youth André Jacques Garner had lifted to a height of 1,000 meters with a hot air balloon and completed the first parachuting in human history in Paris. By August 1951, skydiving became a popular sport in the world, and the first championship was held in Yugoslavia. Skydiving can be divided into several types: low-altitude skydiving, stunt skydiving and water skydiving. The risk index is quite high.
News reports about the skydiving accidents also emerged endlessly. The Washington Post introduced a skydiving murder in September 2019: seven skydivers jumped off the plane and began to land on the ground of Northern California when a strong wind destroyed A 28-year-old woman took control of the parachute. Witnesses said she had been struggling when the wind took the skydiver away from the safe landing zone in the center of the Skydive Lodi parachute. Eventually on California's Highway 99, the woman collided with a large truck approaching and died on the spot.
Survivor's voice: understand the risks, but still move forward
High-altitude mountaineering, cave diving, skydiving, bungee jumping, and free-hand rock climbing, each sounds daunting enough, but a group of naturally adventurous athletes continue to challenge the danger and leave a legend.
Gray Child wrote an article in Climbing magazine, introducing the story of high altitude mountaineering challenger Doug Scott, and calling him a great survivor of extreme sports. The author and Scottrade climbed the Shivling peak in the Himalayas of India. On the twelfth day, the weather deteriorated and the food was exhausted. The two could only shrink in a 20,000-foot rock crack, which not only shielded the strong wind, but also It can block the ice that the climber kicked off.
As early as 1975, Scottrade had successfully climbed Mount Everest. He loved to form a team, climb the mountain quickly and quickly, relying on the instinct, physical fitness and perseverance of the players to win. Charles said that Scottrade has experienced more than 25 expeditions in his life. This British is not only one of the most active climbers in the contemporary era, but also a minority of mountaineering survivors of his era. After all, many people of the same era have already been buried. High mountain.
When the two climbed the Shivling Peak together, the author was tormented by hunger and cold, but Scott was comforting him "without fasting, there is no way to realize the Tao", and led the author to climb forward and continue to move forward. However, when the real danger comes, Scottrade will not blindly challenge the limit, but know how to close at the right time. "If the climber's only goal is to climb the summit, he may lose his intuition, it is easy to make himself unable to look back." Scott and Chard shared the way they learned: to learn to mobilize the rational negative traits in the body , In the face of danger, to fight against the positive traits. Chard felt that the calm mind and survival instinct were the most powerful weapon that Scott, the "angel from hell," could survive.
Compared to climbing the snow mountain, rock climbing is also a high-risk sport that poses a great challenge to physical fitness. Some netizens have specially sorted out the stories of surviving rock climbing survivors for decades. Alan Ralston's experience was a singular talk in the circle, and was also made into the film "127 Hours" and was shortlisted for the Oscar Film Festival. The incident happened on April 26, 2003. Ralston completed his climbing challenge in a gorge in Utah. Suddenly an 800-pound boulder rolled about and crushed his right hand. He Trapped. He tried to move the rope and cut the rock with a blunt tool. All the means of self-help ended in failure. On the fourth day, he was still trapped in the canyon, and he ran out of food. After several struggles, he finally chose to amputate himself to save his life. Later, this experience was written by him as an autobiography. He said: "I am very happy to take action and survive. This is how I deal with the pain. I can survive because of the love of family and friends."
Norwegian athlete Axel Lund Svendar is a famous alpine skier, tracing his personal career, it is not too much to describe him as a survivor. Svendar had won six gold medals in the Olympics and World Championships, but he was also seriously injured in 2007 due to somersaults when going downhill from the track. However, in an interview after retirement, he still said, "We understand the risks and have always understood, but we will put this understanding away because we must continue to do the things we love."
Extreme sports ≠ extreme play cool
In the decades that extreme sports have swept the world, people are attacking faster, higher, and stronger sportsmanship. However, in the circle of young people, the challenges to extremes gradually spread beyond sports-derived from extreme sports The "Extreme Coolness" has become a worrying new trend.
Extreme selfies are a popular new way of playing among young people today. Ascending to take pictures challenges people's physical fitness, concentration, and psychological endurance, but it is not essentially a sport, but a dangerous derivative of high-altitude extreme sports. As early as 2014, a series of photographs by Korean female photographer Ahn Jun called "Self Portrait" became popular all over the world. She either stands or sits, taking pictures of herself on the edge of various tall buildings, and wants to take a lonely perspective of the urban people living in reinforced concrete.
Unexpectedly, there was a wave of movement in artistic performance, and young people scrambled to follow suit, challenging difficult selfies at the top of tall buildings to release the vigorous hormones in their bodies. Russian girl Angela Nikolai specially visited tall buildings in many countries for extreme selfies. In order to show the ultimate beauty, she even showed the ballet movements practiced in her childhood. The Russian teenager, nicknamed "Wild Horse", hired two companions to help him step on a wooden board on the edge of a high-rise building and took a thrilling photo of a seesaw standing on a high altitude. With a large number of likes and reposts on the Internet, these extreme selfie masters are sought after, but it is not easy to complete the difficult shooting, and the public must not follow suit, and a little carelessness will lead to a tragedy.
High-altitude parkour is also a high-altitude sport popular among young people. It has not been recognized by official competitions. Cases of death are common in the world. In St. Petersburg, Russia, a pair of sisters followed the four boys to learn parkour and went to the top of a 17-story building for outdoor teaching. The boys were all veterans, successfully flying over the gaps on the roof. They turned around and called to the opposite sister. The older sister refused because she was too dangerous. The handsome leaping jump made her younger heart moved. She chose to accept the challenge. However, she copied the handsome young sister, but failed to land steadily. Before her feet reached the opposite eaves, she fell from the air and died. When the incident happened, she was only 24 years old.
Similar cases are repeated, and in July 2013, Pavel Kashen of St. Petersburg fell on the sidewalk as he tried to perform a backflip on a 16-story building. At that time, he was standing on a concrete platform at the top of a building about three feet wide. He asked a friend to shoot all the way and record the cool moments of his stunt performance. He didn't expect to wait for the last image before his death. The death of this full-time parkour artist made everyone sigh, and many of the breakthrough parkour stunts created by him can only be sealed in the memory of fans.
On Facebook, some netizens said that this was a "courageous jump" and expressed their sadness through the parkour group. But Kashin’s parents didn’t think so. They allowed the photographer to put their son’s photos on the Internet in addition to their grief. In addition to accepting the mourning, they also hoped to arouse the young people’s alert and not let the tragedy happen again.
The Frenchman David Bell had a beautiful original intention when he founded Parkour Sports. He hoped that people would mobilize their sixth sense, through exercise to enhance their physical and mental resilience to emergencies. In the process, people can be more focused, break through fear, and overcome themselves. . Master Luc Besson's screenplay "The Violence Block" was really released after the release of the parkour craze, which attracted young people to imitate, but probably they did not expect this extreme challenge to take away so many young lives .
The essence of extreme sports is still to relieve stress and promote physical and mental health through exercise, but blindly trying to find stimulation will be counterproductive. The high-altitude challenge in the name of extreme sports is not worth blindly imitating.
Professional training and qualification certification to ensure safety
In recent years, extreme sports have caused many tragic casualties. Statistics from various countries remind people to pay attention to the fatal risks behind speed and passion.
According to a report by the Swiss National News Radio, about 184 people die in Switzerland every year from dangerous sports and the number of injuries is as high as 400,000. Most of these dangerous activities take place in the mountains. In 2018, trekking killed 46 Swiss people, 29 were killed in rock climbing, and water sports also caused 29 deaths. For the coastal country New Zealand, diving is a high-risk sport. According to the latest statistics released by the New Zealand Water Safety Authority, a total of 10 people died in diving accidents in New Zealand in 2019, including 4 free diving and 5 scuba diving. Dive 1 person.
In order to cope with risks, the United Nations formulated the "Diving Operation Code" as early as 1988, informing people of the diving operation specifications in different environments and conditions. This code provides guidance and guidance on management practices, insurance, employment terms, medical standards, training standards, adventure plans, diving plans, and breathing gas and respiratory system safety.
Even in the United States, where extreme sports have been developed for many years, there are strict rules for the qualification of athletes for skydiving: if you want to engage in this sport for a long time, you need to take different levels of qualification certificates issued by the American Skydiving Association; learning is dangerous and difficult Before the large wing-mounted flight, in addition to having to complete more than 200 high-altitude skydiving, you also need to pass safety courses and theoretical exams.
If you want to give your ski level a certification and become a licensed athlete, there are different processes and standards in various countries around the world. The American Ski Instructors Association has a 60-year history and about 30,000 ski instructors. It can certify all kinds of skis and subdivide 9 exams according to different groups, including double board, single board, double board for people with disabilities, and People with disabilities, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, knee-spin skiing, children's experts, adult experts, freestyle experts, anyone who wants to qualify can take the exam. The certification methods in Canada are a bit different. Their professional instructor ski alliance classifies skiers' qualifications into levels 1-4. The targeted population includes both first-level zero-based guests and professionals who want to have a fourth-level trainer qualification.
It can be seen that no matter in which country or in any event of extreme sports, professional training and qualification certification must be adopted to ensure professional standards; at the same time, careful compliance with sports regulations and regulations also helps to avoid risks.
In order to deal with the possible casualties caused by extreme sports, the insurance industry came into being. For professional athletes, the national team mostly insures them collectively. For example, the United States Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee have set up special accident insurance plans for all qualified national team athletes and their families, not only covering accidents during competitions and training. It also ensures that injured athletes can get the best care.
But for individuals, you need to insure yourself before the trip. For example, there are not many professional insurances for skiing projects, and the prices and insurance coverage are also different. However, not all extreme sports have optional insurance like skiing. Parkour is usually not covered by accident insurance due to its high risk.
Do your homework and plan before you go is the key
For professional athletes, the risks of extreme sports should not be underestimated; while ordinary people want to experience extreme sports, they need to do enough homework, improve safety awareness, understand the industry qualifications of extreme sports companies, and avoid risks as much as possible.
Diving is one of the high-risk sports. Mastering theoretical knowledge before departure is especially important for beginners. The online magazine "Scuba Page" for diving enthusiasts around the world opens a column for diving enthusiasts about how science diving accidents occur and how to avoid them: rapid rise is one of the causes of diving deaths, which is likely to cause decompression sickness and In air embolism, about 36% of tragedies are caused by people's panic reaction and rapid rise. In addition, buoyancy control and understanding of marked buoys are essential diving knowledge. The solid training in the early stage can help people stay in danger and increase the possibility of survival.
Before diving, several diving tips should also be kept in mind, such as paying close attention to meters and fellow friends, always paying attention to their physical fitness and withstanding limits; understanding the deployment of buoys in open water; without training, do not enter shipwrecks or caves; If you haven’t dived for a long time, you need to review your basic skills before diving.
At the same time, before registering to experience extreme sports, it is also very important to inspect the company's qualifications. The skydive lodi parachute center in the incident of the 28-year-old girl who parachuted into a truck and mentioned above is not well-known in the industry. In August 2016, an 18-year-old boy who experienced parachutes for the first time died from the inadequate deployment of parachutes by the coach. From 1999 to 2018, there were as many as 16 parachuting deaths in this parachute center. This also attracted the attention of the authorities. After the accident in 2016, the federal regulator revealed that the skydiving coach who caused the death of the 18-year-old boy was not licensed. Because of safety failures and casualties, the Federal Aviation Administration fined the company nearly $1 million. It can be seen that, before registering to experience extreme sports, it is necessary to check the company's past history and understand the qualifications and equipment status of the coaches to ensure the safety of their lives.
Climbing the snowy mountains is by no means a matter of walking away. The official website of a mountain guide association called RMI provides a lot of preliminary preparation suggestions for donkey friends who want to organize a group to challenge mountain climbing. They suggest that those who are not experienced in climbing think about it before starting: How many days will it take to climb? What terrain will you encounter? How big is the luggage? What is the climb altitude? How is your own health? After thinking about these issues, you can design a training schedule for the first experience of mountaineering. For example, aerobic exercise and strength training are helpful for cardiovascular health and are the basis for long-term climbing. In addition, the necessary stretching training, balance and agility training, and endurance training are also arranged in the schedule. Climbers can make their own pre-trip preparation plans according to their own conditions.
Whether it is an athlete or an ordinary person, it is necessary to make a thorough preparation plan before the start of extreme sports. You cannot blindly pursue excitement and cause an irreparable tragedy because of the carelessness.