PERSPECTIVES OF THE SPORT-ORIENTED

The purpose of the research was to determine the perspectives of the sport-oriented people regarding the participation of a continuously increasing number of athletes in extreme sports. At the forefront, there is the recognition of the reasons why people actively participate in extreme sports. We were also interested in the popularity of individual sports and in people‘s attitudes regarding the dangers and demands of these types of sports. The research was based on a statistical sample of 1,478 sport-oriented people in Slovenia, who completed an online questionnaire. The results showed that people were very familiar with individual extreme sports, especially the ultra-endurance types of sports. The people who participated in the survey stated that the most dangerous types of sports were: extreme skiing, downhill mountain biking and mountaineering, whilst the most demanding were: Ironman, ultracycling, and ultrarunning. The results have shown a wider popularity of extreme sports amongst men and (particularly among the people participating in the survey) those who themselves prefer to do these types of sports the most. Regarding the younger people involved in the survey, they typically preferred the more dangerous sports as well, whilst the older ones liked the demanding sports more. People consider that the key reasons for the extreme athletes to participate in extreme sports were entertainment, relaxation and the attractiveness of these types of sports. Key words: sports activity, risk sports, attitud