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Legal Issues in Extreme Sport

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Extreme Sports Medicine

Abstract

This chapter examines legal issues in extreme sport and where the law and extreme sport intersect. The courts have been vexed how to deal with extreme sports because whereas ordinarily a duty exists to reduce risk to make something as safe as possible, its raison d’être is to purposefully situate athletes in high-risk situations where there is a real risk of harm. This chapter explores how legal concepts of negligence and waivers and occupier’s liability apply to extreme sport.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The sport England recognizes 147 sports, the London 2012 Olympics held 302 medal events in 39 disciplines, and the Sochi 2014 Olympics held 98 titles in 15 disciplines.

  2. 2.

    Alternatively known as risk compensation theory [25]

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Heshka, J. (2017). Legal Issues in Extreme Sport. In: Feletti, F. (eds) Extreme Sports Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28265-7_35

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28265-7_35

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