Xtreme Sports are those that involve high adrenaline action while taking sports to an extreme! Many have very real danger lurking around the corner. There is no set definition of what is an xtreme sport, although more common ones are skydiving, surfing, snowboarding, paintball, skateboarding, motoGP racing, BMX etc.

Through the years, peoples perception seems to have changed from adult sports in the early 90′s like hang gliding, rock climbing, mountain biking, etc to the more youth orientated sports that we have now.

Xtreme Sports were even more popularized back in 1995 when ESPN created and held its first X Game, originally called Extreme Games. 198,000 spectators came to Rhode Island to see the first ever xtreme sports competition.
There were 27 events in nine sports categories: Bungy Jumping, Eco-Challenge, In-line Skating, Skateboarding, Skysurfing, Sport Climbing, Street Luge, Biking and Water Sports.

The event was extremely successful and the response even more incredible. The spectators, athletes, & organizers all wanted more of these Extreme Games, and in response, ESPN held another one the following year (1996)! The name was changed and the 1996 game was titled, “X Games II”. 200,000 spectators attended the second installment of the Extreme Games!

In 1997 ESPN held their first Winter X Games at Big Bear Lake California. The winter categories were snowboarding, snow mountain bike racing, super-modified shovel racing, ice climbing, and a crossover multi-sport event.

After the 1997 Winter X Games, ESPN decided to have two X Games per year. The “Summer X Games”, for warm weather xtreme sports and the “Winter X Games” for cold weather xtreme sports.