Extreme sport (also called action sport , adventure sport, and adventurous sport) is a general term for sports featuring speed, height, danger, a high level of physical exertion, highly specialized gear, or spectacular stunts.

Another characteristic of activities labeled as extreme sports is they tend to be individual rather than team sports. Extreme sports can include both competitive and non-competitive activities.

Extreme sports are often associated with young adults wishing to push themselves to the limits of their physical ability and fear, in turn pushing the boundaries of a particular sport. This youthful demographic accounts too for extreme sports’ frequent association with youth culture, including its clothing, fashions, and music.

Some purists repudiate the stereotypical “adrenaline junkie” tag. The practitioners would claim they enjoy developing their physical and/or mental skills, seek mastery of inhospitable environments, look to escape from the mundane rigours of day-to-day existence, or simply love the wilderness environment in which many of these sports take place.

Several so-called extreme sports, including snowboarding, were included in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and 2006 Winter Olympic Games, but many contend that these activities are not even sports, and lose much on their essential elements in the mainstream.

Surfing was originally invented centuries ago by the native inhabitants of Hawaii.

The X-Games is an annual event in which athletes compete in both summer and winter extreme games.

A list of popular extreme sports would include skateboarding, snowboarding, skating, and mountain biking.