23 Thrilling Facts About Adrenaline Sports Athletes

A man named William Dean Sullivan attempted to board a cruise ship by bungee jumping off a bridge as it sailed below. He miscalculated the speed and suffered minor head injuries when he bounced off the ship’s tennis court, volleyball net, and a deck railing before being left dangling in mid-air as the ship sailed away.

A man named Oscar Speck kayaked from Germany to Australia between 1932-1939 only to arrive and be detained as a Prisoner Of War due to the outbreak of World War 2.

Professional cyclists pee while cycling to save time, but are fined, if it is in front of spectators or cameras.

Tim Macartney-Snape is one of the first mountaineers to climb Everest without oxygen. Afterward, someone said to him "You didn't climb Everest. You only climbed the top part." So he went down to the beach in India and re-did the whole thing.

Erden Eruç took 5 years and 11.5 days of rowing, kayaking, hiking, and cycling to become the first person in history to complete an entirely solo and entirely human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. The route he followed was 66,299 km (41,196 miles) long.

In 1968, big wave surfer Eddie Aikau was selected to be the first lifeguard at Waimea beach in Oahu. Not a single person died during his time as a lifeguard and he rescued over 500 people.

In 1989, a scuba diver named William Lamm was sucked up by an intake pipe of a nuclear power plant, dragged over 1,600 feet, and deposited in one of the reactor cooling ponds. He lived.

In 2016, a Forest Service Officer named Brad Treat took a blind turn while mountain biking at 30 mph. He crashed into a large grizzly bear that was sitting on the trail and was immediately mauled to death in response to the collision.

Erik Weihenmayer is a blind rock climber who uses prosthetic "eyes" that translate images to electrical impulses he feels on his tongue. He became the only blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 25, 2001.

On October 23, 1999, BASE jumper and stuntwoman Jan Davis made a protest jump off El Capitan in Yosemite National Park to lift Yosemite's BASE jumping ban. She died in the process. The ban remains intact.