WAG Top 10 Most Difficult Sports in the World

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Gymnastics is definitely the hardest sport in the world. Some of the other sports mentioned are hard but I would not put them in the top 10. (swimming, horse racing, Cross country running). Yes they are hard but plenty of other sports that are harder and require dealing with fear.... I would consider MMA and Hockey to be in the top 10.
 
Coachp, if you don't think that horseback riding requires dealing with fear, you've never jumped. :)

But seriously, the social scientist in me can't buy anything like that unless I know the criteria for measurement, the weighting of the criteria, the sports measured, and the measurement method.
 
I have done swimming, western, dressage and show jumping. They are all very difficult in their own way. In swimming I had to fight a lot with the stamina factor, to just keep swimming.
Horseback riding is a very precise sport, loads of things to think of at the same time and if you're raising your hands to much or not enough, your horse will not understand you. Nothing better than a 600 kilo animal going crazy with you on top and your teach yelling at you to RELAX! Or if your horse decides not to jump last minute and you go jumping without it, you crash into the obstacle and land right on your back.
At least in gymnastics we have mats and the beam doesn't get scared of its shadow and runs off with you on top of it. :)

That being said, none of the above mentioned even comes close to gymnastics IMHO. I measure that in years and hours put into it, times I have cried over it and the imense amount of pain and conditioning you have to endure.
Gymnastics rarely even ends up in lists like this one and I kind of understand it. They are often ruled by Material Arts and I get that point. The conditioning we did in Kick seriously brought me to my limit and boys of the MMA team worked twice as hard. Although I wouldn't put it in front of Gym because of the missing diversity of skills needed, it does deserve a spot in the TOP 10. However if you list every single variation of MA, there sure isn't much space for anything else.
And on the other hand, how could you possibly understand gymnastics without spending years and endless hours in the gym? ;)

(Wow, that got rather long...)
 
You can't make a list like this, as the difficulty of all sports are based on different criteria and requirements. My husband and I had this argument all through college - which was a "harder sport"? Cross-country running or golf? You can be fat and out of shape and still play golf, but the best runners in the world could never make par on a single hole at Augusta. :)
 
You can't make a list like this, as the difficulty of all sports are based on different criteria and requirements. My husband and I had this argument all through college - which was a "harder sport"? Cross-country running or golf? You can be fat and out of shape and still play golf, but the best runners in the world could never make par on a single hole at Augusta. :)

Yep, it's the difference between "physically demanding"(ie pushing your body to it's physically limits like long distance running) and "technically difficult"(golf could be on this list). Gymnastics is at or near the top in both of these categories, thus is the most difficult sport in the world. Have to agree with Iwannabemargo, though, the level of rugby played by the All Blacks would be at the top of the "physically demanding" sports on my list.:)
 
Wow! I've never thought about how hard gymnastics is compared to other sports!
 
I have always considered gymnastics to be the hardest sport because of all the strength and coordination that is requires. Not to mention the time it requires compared to a lot of other sports.
 
Yep, it's the difference between "physically demanding"(ie pushing your body to it's physically limits like long distance running) and "technically difficult"(golf could be on this list). Gymnastics is at or near the top in both of these categories, thus is the most difficult sport in the world.

And the number of different skills you need in gymnastics compared to most other sports.
 
I thought it was a very poorly written article and most of the sports listed in the top 10 had me scratching my head as to why. But gymnastics definitely seems like it is the hardest.
 
The fact that it didn't list baseball makes it a joke. There is nothing harder then hitting a 97 mph fastball with movement then the next pitch being an 80 mph curve. I might put gymnastics in top 10 but that list was just stupid
 
And the number of different skills you need in gymnastics compared to most other sports.

and to put it more simply...the men have 6 events and the women 4. so that puts men 1st and women 2nd far and above any other sport. now ponder all those elements and how many they must each do per event. that in and of itself is mind boggling. :)
 

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