Abstract
The sporting culture penetrated our quotidian as a major reference. Even if it is difficult to define, sports is known by everybody and is omnipresent. Today, sports profit from a positive image (to be well, healthy). It occupies an important place in the media (newspapers, TV, sporting press, sports channels). The sports competition success with 32,000 participants registered for the Paris marathon, 9,000,000 spectators for Tour de France and more than 250,000,000 for the last Superbowl are examples of the importance given to sports in these modern times. The image of the champion is used much in publicity, the sportsmen of high levels are models and make sales.
Everyone knows this famous sentence of Miles in the movie "Cliffhanger": "I like it extreme" when he is speaking about the bad conditions (weather) before making his jump (with a parachute).
These last years, extreme sports has been with the modern life mode. The figures show that extreme sports are especially the prerogative of young people from the upper social class, it is an evidence easy to make: tennis is annoying and other similar sports are becoming boring. The traditional sports are not any more fun, we need more!
As time goes by, the notion of "Extreme Sports" has evolved. Between the 1970s and the 1980s, sports considered as "Extremes" were only the ones with risks of fatal accidents in case of error. From 1990s, auto-proclamation of extreme sports became common, with the aim of valuing the activity.
Since the 2000s, the definition has considerably become supple, and is classified in this category of sports which offers wild sports. It is also a variation of classic sports which initially were without dangers and now are more hard, more complex and unsafe.
People are now looking for new experiences, looking for thrills, looking for sensations, they want to surpass themselves.
The extreme sports' popularity has created a lot of new businesses; many companies indulge in extreme sports for their growth.
Tourism is taking advantage of these new kinds of activities and creates various offers including the practice of extreme sports.
The objective of this paper is to define how extreme sports has become an industry in France, so all the first parts of this section are dedicated to the French market. Nevertheless, as it is a relatively new segment of the sports market in France, we will also find out other results from different countries.
The section will focus on the sports industry with a global overview of the situation in France (the market, the customer). Secondly, we will find out the situation of extreme sports in the general sports industry.
In order to show how much importance it takes, we will present you an example of the extreme sports market: the case of USA and an example of the new opportunity: the case of the UK with the Extreme Sports Channel.
To finish this part, I will highlight on the sudden rise in using the word "extreme" and why it is impacting on other markets.
