Top 10 Hardest Sports In The World You Never Knew

Athletes give years to their respective sports to excel, and yet only a few are ever able to make it to the top. Sports like football and cricket take decades to become experts in them. However, there are many sports that take the passion and attention to the next level. Today, we are going to talk about the top 10 hardest sports in the world and what makes them so hard. The sports we will mention today are not very popular, and their level of complexity and hardness have something to do with it. So, let’s get started. 

 

The Hardest Sports To Master

Before starting the list, it’s worth mentioning that this list is based on the data we could find and as this is a subjective matter, we did our best to do justice. 

 

10- Freestyle Wrestling

Among the top 10 hardest sports in the world, the first is Freestyle Wrestling. It is a form of full-contact wrestling which is done on a mat. Freestyle Wrestling is also one of the oldest and most prestigious Olympic sports. This is a sport of hard work and dedication. Most of the people who do this sport have been doing it since they were 4 or 5 years old. The level of competition in wrestling is very high and that is why wrestlers have to grind this much. 

 

What Makes It Hard: Wrestlers have to learn hundreds of slams, trips and throws while having great cardio and conditioning. 

 

Notable Athletes: Aleksandr Karelin, Sushil Kumar, Jordan Burroughs 

 

9- Bull Riding

Bull riding is among the most challenging sports in the world, and a dangerous one at that. This sport is not for the faint of heart, as every bull ride has the potential to be your last. In bull riding, a rider tries to stay atop a wild bull for 8 seconds. To do this is nothing short of challenging and it takes people years to perfect this craft. 

 

Notable Athletes: J.B. Mauney and Adriano Moraes

What Makes It Hard: The ability to stay in balance while maintaining composure is what makes this sport one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world. 

 

8- Water Polo

Water Polo is like football in water and you don’t play it by kicking the ball; rather, you have to throw the ball. It is played in a swimming pool, at least 1.8m deep. This is a team sport played between 2 teams, where the objective is to defend your own goalpost and score goals in the other team’s goalpost. You have to swim and play with the ball at the same time, and this is what makes it one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world. 

 

Notable Athletes: Filip Filipovic and Dusan Mandic

What Makes It Hard: The ability to swim and play ball at the same time requires a lot of coordination. Moreover, you need good stamina, endurance and upper body strength. 

 

7- Figure Skating

Figure skating is one of the most gruelling games in the world, mostly because of the small margin of error involved. This sport is one of the staple events of the Olympics. Doing even 5 minutes of normal ice skating can be a bit taxing on your cardio; a figure skater has to do it for hours on end while maintaining balance and performing tricks. 

 

Notable Athletes: Yuna Kim, Evgenia Medvedeva and Nathan Chan

What Makes It Hard: The endurance, stamina and balance needed to perform figure skating tricks are what make it one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world. 

 

6- Motor Sports

Motor Sports is not a single sport but a category of sports. It includes everything from bike racing to truck racing to F1 and everything in between. F1, being the upper echelon of the sport, requires tremendous training and years of memorizing tracks and honing driving skills before even winning a single race. You need to have lightning-fast reflexes to be a motorsports athlete. 

 

Notable Athletes: Lewis Hamilton, Valentino Rossie and Colin McRae

What Makes It Hard: Memorizing tracks, driving skills, and the G force endured by the drivers are among the things that make motorsports one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world. 

 

5- Swimming

Swimming is another sport that is considered one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world, mainly because of the endurance required and the crisp techniques involved in the sport. Swimming athletes are tearing through the water, and that requires strength. A swimmer spends most of his/her life in a swimming pool honing his/her skills. 

 

Notable Athletes: Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Mark Spitz.

What Makes It Hard: The strength, endurance, and the perfect technique to tear through water efficiently makes Swimming one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world. 

 

4- Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport that involves many different events, such as vaulting, beaming, and uneven bars. However, what all of these have in common is that they require a tremendous amount of strength. Gymnasts have to manipulate their bodies in ways that require tremendous strength, agility, stamina, balance and body control, and these things take years to develop. 

 

Notable Athletes: Simone Biles, Nastia Liukin and Larisa Latynina 

What Makes It Hard: The thing that makes gymnastics one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world is the strength, agility, balance and body control one must have to compete in the sport. 

 

3- Rugby

Some sports are hard because they take a tremendous amount of practice to perfect the skills. Rugby, on the other hand, is hard because of the physicality of the game. Rugby players have no regard for their well-being. You just have to see one Rudby match to understand that this sport is something else. People are crashing into each other head-first without any headgear or protective gear. 

 

Notable Athletes: Maro Itoje, Siya Kolisi and Ardie Savea

What Makes it Hard: Rugby requires a lot of stamina, speed and agility to defend and tackle your opponents. Also, it is very dangerous to play Rugby. 

 

2- Boxing

Know as the ‘ Sweet Science’, boxing is one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world because it requires strength, agility, speed, timing, endurance, and fight IQ. Defence in boxing is just as important as offence, and it takes boxers years to perfect their techniques. Moreover, boxing bouts are usually ten rounds long at minimum. This means boxers have to fight for 30 minutes at least, which is very exhausting. 

 

Notable Athletes: Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez

What Makes It Hard: The crisp techniques, cardio and body strength needed in boxing are extraordinary. Moreover, the sport involves getting punched in the face, which isn’t easy either. 

 

Also Read: Top Heavyweight Boxers of All Time Who Created History In Ring

 

1- MMA ( Mixed Martial Arts)

Whatever we said about boxing applies to MMA, too. However, this sport is even more brutal and unforgiving. In MMA, you can punch, kick, knee, and elbow and also take the fight to the ground. Unlike boxing, which is unidimensional, MMA involves techniques from a whole host of martial arts, including boxing, Karate, Kickboxing, Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo, Wrestling, and many more. You can win by knockout, submission, or decision. 

 

Notable Athletes: Jon Jones, Conor McGregor and Georges St-Piere

What Makes It Hard: The fact that you have to learn techniques from many martial arts, along with having the cardio to do it for 25 minutes, is what makes MMA one of the top 10 hardest sports in the world. 

 

Our Verdict

People give their blood and sweat to sports and sometimes quite literally, but the sports we mentioned above require even more than this. This is why these are the top 10 hardest sports in the world. Some of these sports are not very well known but are very hard to master or perfect. So, what do you think is the hardest sport in the world? Do comment and let us know.