Every Winter Olympic sport, ranked by how scary it would be

The Winter Olympics is our chance to check out sports that only appear on our radar every four years, the majority of which are only popular in Europe. It’s just the nature of the beast, and part of what makes the games so amazing.

Inside of this we have varying levels of terror. Situations that would send a normal person screaming for the hills if they were thrust into it. These are every Olympic sport at the 2026 winter games, ranked by how terrifying they would be.

No. 16: Curling

This should surprise nobody. Curling requires a great amount of skill, but there isn’t anything inherently dangerous here. The only risk is potentially throwing out your shoulder with the heavy stone or slipping while trying to sweep the ice.

No. 15: Bobsled

Anything involving the sliding course is terrifying, but the two-and-four-person bobsled are where I think you’re relatively fine. As long as you’re not the driver you can more or less lean on your teammate — and the worse you are at the sport, the slower you’ll go. I think this would be fairly worry free all things considered.

No. 14: Figure Skating

Figure Skating is emotionally damaging, rather than physically risky — and that’s what makes it scary. Whether solo, or in pairs — everyone’s eyes are singularly on you. There’s no escape from judgement, no place to hide. You might not die while figure skating, but you might feel like you want to.

No. 13: Cross-Country Skiing

Skiing is difficult. Now imagine being thrown into a 50-kilometer event that you have to finish. This is endurance hell, and while it might not be that physically risky — the idea of being put on the starting line of a skiing marathon is absolutely not cool.

No. 12: Biathlon

It’s cross-country skiing, but with guns! Okay, they’re air rifles — but the point generally remains. Gets the edge just because I’m convinced, I’d somehow shoot myself in the ass while trying to ski with a gun slung over my shoulder.

No. 11: Ski-Mountaineering

The newest Olympic event is just ridiculous. Have you ever felt like climbing a mountain on skis, and then being pressured to go down a hill after? It’s a horrible combination of two awful elements. Might not be as scary as our Top 10, but it definitely belongs on the list.

No. 10: Snowboarding

Snowboarding is slightly less terrifying than skiing as far as I’m concerned. There are all kinds of ways you can jack yourself up while trying to go down a hill, but ultimately there’s just less ragdoll falling in snowboarding than in skiing — which gives this a narrow edge. I don’t have the skills to really be able to hurt myself on slopestyle, big air, or the halfpipe. I’d just go down a little, fall, and call it a day.

No. 9: Freestyle Skiing

Very similar to snowboarding with worse falls. Aerials are terrifying, but I’d fall before hitting the takeoff ramp.

No 8: Alpine Skiing

Do you have any idea how tall and terrifying an Olympic alpine slope is? Even the greatest athletes in the world get injured on a regular basis, and there’s no great way of bailing out on a hill that tall. I’d just die. No thanks.

No. 7: Speed Skating

Ice skating is not terrifying. Speed skating is. There’s a level of nerves I get at the rink when a showoff teenager flies past me. Take that up to 11 when everyone is moving at 35 miles-per-hour with long knives on their feet, trying to get as close to me as possible. No thank you.

No 6: Short-track Speed Skating

Hey, let’s speed skate in a smaller circle, closer together, with a greater chance of falling into people’s knife feet. No thanks.

No. 5: Ice Hockey

If you threw me over the boards in a game of hockey I might die. That’s all there is to it. I’m a decent skater but throw anyone on the ice that hockey players don’t recognize and they’re going to try and baptize you by checking you into the boards with all their might. No thank you.

No. 4: Luge

Now we get to the horrifying sliding sports. In luge it’s all on you. There is a very little margin for error, and if you don’t know how to steer the sled (which I don’t) then you’re likely flying out of the track on the first corner and landing on concrete. The engineering of the course is also such that you need to reach a minimum speed to be safe. This is all bad.

No. 3: Ski Jumping

The thing that’s awful about ski jumping is that you’re essentially locked into the path. The deep ruts in the runway mean you’re going to fly off that thing — and if you fall, you’re basically plummeting down a 200m mountain. Just awful stuff and I don’t know why anyone enjoys this sport.

No. 2: Nordic Combined

Take cross country skiing (our No. 13 sport) AND make you ski jump as well. It’s the worst of both worlds.

No. 1: Skeleton

Luge is scary. Skeleton is going face-first. I have no conceptual understanding of why someone thought this was a good idea for a sport, who takes it up for fun, and who tries to master it by becoming one of the best in the world. It’s functionally a death wish on ice. There might be 100 different sports I would rather try before making a single skeleton run.

What do you think? What is the scariest Olympic sport?