<< High-risk sports >> and << extreme sports >> : what exactly do we mean ?

Any analysis of current recreational sports devotes a lot of time to the concept of "high-risk" or "extreme" sports. We start off by pointing out the over-simplification inherent to the automatic use of such denominations, which led to our undertaking an enumeration of their scientific definitions. With respect to "high-risk sports", five terminological perspectives were identified. This leads to two possible positions: one may simply abandon the use of a category that is generically impossible to define; or recognize the broad, polythetic nature of the denomination, which requires specific constructs for each and every distinct usage. The criticism as regards the scientific appropriation of the notion of "extreme sport" is harsher. Indeed, the proliferation of meanings and the redundancy occasioned by a number of pre-existing characteristics, makes it difficult to consider that this denomination can be ranked as a concept, and triggers a doubt as to whether its scientific use is relevant.