Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: Why luge is the most dangerous winter sport

Almost every event at the Winter Olympics is an adrenaline sport. (ABC/Getty Images)

When every Winter Olympics passes, the conversation quickly turns to how dangerous everything seems to be. Well, almost everything.

The Winter Olympics is largely about speed at extreme temperatures, trying to tame conditions that maybe shouldn't always be tamed.

Four athletes have died during the Winter Olympics in the history of the games. Two deaths have come in luge, one in alpine skiing and one in the demonstration sport of speed skiing.

The alpine skier who died was Australian Ross Milne, a young speed specialist at his first Olympics in 1964. Milne's brother, Malcolm, would later be the Australian flag bearer and compete at two Olympics. Malcolm would also be the first non-European to win a World Cup downhill race, breaking ground for skiers internationally.

For experts, these are still likely the most dangerous disciplines on show, but what about for the beginners and intermediates.

These are how the sports rank in terms of danger from the perspective of those on the couch at home.

Least dangerous

15. Curling

Despite the athletes showing nerves of steel and needing to display extraordinary precision, curling is not the most adrenaline-fuelled sport to take place at the Games. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang)

While you can fall over a fair bit when launching a stone, it's relatively safe.

The ice is surprisingly sticky, and the slider only takes a little bit to get used to.

You might fall over, trip on a stone or have one bang into your ankle at some speed. 

14. Cross-country skiing

Competitors race distances from 10 to 50 kilometres with two different styles employed: classic and freestyle. (Getty Images: Matthias Hangst)

You are going to get really tired, but you should be pretty safe.

Falling at speed down a hill might be a challenge, but you might throw in the towel before then.

13. Figure skating

Don't let the gracefulness and elegance of what you see on the ice disguise just how dangerous this sport can be. (Getty Images: Dean Mouhtaropoulos)

Realistically, a beginner isn't going to do crazy jumps.

You might fall over, it might feel pretty bad. But your figures are going to be pretty basic, and the real danger ramps up with the difficulty.

Dangerous

12. Bobsleigh

Hurtling down a partially enclosed icy track with multiple twists and turns at speeds up to 150kph, this is a sport that is not for the faint-hearted.  (Getty Images: Alex Pantling)

This is a balanced rating – it's all pretty dangerous by this point. As a brake in the two or four-person bobsleigh, not much is required beyond the push. From there, it's all in the pilot's hands.

But what if you are a pilot, or in the monobob? It's extremely challenging. Would not try.

This one could easily be higher, but they are all pretty dangerous from here.

The sled also protects the body to some degree, and keeps it from shooting off the track.

11. Biathlon

Biathlon competitors ski around a course before taking aim at five targets using rifles that they carry around on their backs. (Getty Images: Lars Baron)

This one has a gun and it comes in as the fourth safest.

The mitigating factor here is the safety measures in the range and how many people would quit before even getting to the range. If things go poorly, however, it's pretty dangerous.

10. Speed skating

This is the less dangerous of the short track speed skating event. (Getty Images: Catherine Ivill)

Yes, there may be giant knives on the feet of these athletes. But long track sees plenty of space between opponents, and the knives are a fair way away from the body.

Most would crash within metres of the start line, but if you can get going, you should be safe from your opponent.

9. Ice Hockey

Aside from being the so-called fastest sport in the world, ice hockey is a brutal mix of exhilarating skill and straight-up savagery. (Getty Images: Bruce Bennett)

Nope. You are going to fall, you are going to get hit.

Maybe you will be bad enough in your first shift that it is your last. And you shouldn't be hit hard off the puck, which you surely will be considering a lack of any skill.

8. Snowboarding

The Half-pipe, slopestyle and big air events are for the acrobats, with both men and women completing death-defying moves wow the judges the most snowboarding. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

Anyone who has seen a beginner snowboarder knows how unpleasant an experience it is to watch.

Thankfully, true beginners would be unlikely to gain enough speed to damage themselves on the jumps of the slopestyle, big air or halfpipe.

Intermediates have a fair chance of holding up enough to go over the edge, but most would figure it's a bad idea.

And in the snowboard cross, Markus Schairer broke his neck after crashing at the 2018 Winter Olympics. So pretty dangerous all up.

7. Alpine skiing

Skiers hurtle down slopes that can reach a gradient of 70 per cent, achieving speeds of up to 130kph — including going airborne. (Getty Images: Alexander Hassenstein)

Again, another sport where the potential for harm increases the better you are at the sport.

True beginners would likely crash and eliminate themselves before they could get into real trouble.

Intermediates who try to compete might get themselves into real trouble, especially in the downhill and super-G. And this event has killed Olympians before.

6. Short track speed skating

The short speed skating track is a 111-metre-long oval track where racers jostle for position. (Getty Images: Lintao Zhang)

Yes, this is the event that Steven Bradbury nearly died in. Yes, it has many people with super sharp blades going around the track, close to each other.

But for a beginner or intermediate, it'd be hard to be in that mix. Accidents are pretty common in the sport, but dangerous ones are less so and you have to be good enough to be put in that position.

5. Skeleton

Competitors fly down the same course as the bobsleigh, head first, on their bellies, at 130kph. (Getty Images: Adam Pretty)

The biggest obstacle is hopping on the sled here – it takes a fair amount of practice to event start this event, let alone finish it.

There's a fair chance that most would fail to stick the landing, ending the race before it starts.

Those who do land it? They are in for a scary, scary time.

Extremely dangerous

4. Freestyle skiing

Freestyle skiing is a thrill-a-minute excuse to show off audacious feats of acrobatics across six different disciplines. (Getty Images: Jed Jacobsohn)

This one gets a bump on the snowboarding due to the aerials, which is a short ski run followed by being launched up to 20 metres in the air.

Again, beginners would possibly crash before the jump, but unlike the other events above the only skiing is in a short, straight line. If you go over the edge, it's going to hurt, and you could die.

3. Ski jumping

There are two types of hill in Ski Jumping: the normal hill — which has a calculation line of 90 metres — and the large hill — which is set at 120 metres. (Getty Images: Patrick Smith)

Unlike the other skiing events, the ski jump places athletes on a track. There's no turning, no real ability needed to get down to the bottom.

You are going off the edge.

If somehow, on the way down you fall, then you might fall down the track or through scaffolding at significant speed.

But when you get off the edge, you are faced with the increasingly important issue of how to land at between 80 and 100kmph while a few metres in the air.

A whole lot of nope.

2. Nordic combined

Nordic combined is one of the original Winter Olympic sports, debuting at the inaugural 1924 Chamonix Games and featured at every Winter Games since. (Getty Images: Tom Weller)

This is slightly more dangerous because the marginally dangerous cross-country follows the ski jumping, amplifying the difficulty very slightly.

Top spot

1. Luge

Competitors race on their backs, feet-first, using their feet to steer down the track at 140kph. (Getty Images: Adam Pretty)

Unlike the skeleton, you don't have to mount the sled mid-flight. Unlike the bobsleigh, there's nothing to really protect you or no good way to steer. Or no brake or pusher spot to hide in.

There's no way out, just ice, concrete and gravity. People die doing this.

You can't really see while going down, and gravity speeds you up on the way.

Pretty much any of the top 12 have claims to this spot, especially the final three. But the luge is absolutely, fundamentally scary.