15 Most Physically Demanding Olympic Sports

With the next Olympics approaching soon, let’s take a look at the most physically demanding Olympic sports, and see which athletes will have the toughest time preparing for it.

The Olympic games started back in 1896, with only nine sports, out of which only these five – athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics and swimming were included in every single summer Olympic games since the beginning. Next year, the Tokyo Olympics will include 33 sports, which is by 5 more, compared to the previous games. The five new ones include sport climbing, baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, and surfing. It seems that the boundaries are widening in all directions, with the Olympic games now including some of the most difficult sports in the world.

On the other side of the medal, regarding the easiest sports, we did some researches on the 10 Easiest Winter Olympic Sports to Qualify for, and 8 Easiest Olympic Sports to Qualify for, so go ahead and take a look. This time as well, we are taking both the summer and winter Olympic sports into account.

So, how do we measure the difficulty of a sport? One of the problems it poses is the fact that the most mentally demanding sport, does not necessarily need to be the most physically demanding one. Some sports require developing tactics, planning, visualizing the match/game. So, thinking about what is the hardest sport mentally, fencing comes at the top of the list, and no wonder it is often referred to as physical chess. While requiring excellent physical strength, agility, and durability, fencer also needs to think of all possible strategies, attack planning and predicting his opponent’s moves. Taking all this into account, fencing could easily be classified as the most complicated sport.

Nevertheless, other sports should not be underrated taking the mental aspect into account. So, if you were asking yourself is swimming the hardest sport, the answer is yes, it is among the hardest ones, taking in account both mental and physical stress and preparation.

For today’s topic, in order to see which Olympic sports are the most physically demanding ones, we searched on places such as Bleacher Report and Outside online, and some personal experience. And, in order to rank the sports on our list, we followed the degree of difficulty criteria mainly taken from ESPN. The ranking criteria include important aspects that a sportsman needs to master and possess, such as durability, strength, power, agility, speed, flexibility and so on.

So if you’d like to see what the most physically demanding Olympic sports are, and which of these sports requires the most skill, let’s check the following list:

15. Handball

We start off with a very tough team Olympic sport. Apart from working in a group, professional handball players need to develop great agility, coordination, and physical strength.

14. Speed Skating

As the name points out, speed is the key factor in this sport. Developing and controlling speed in speed skating takes a lot of practice and physical preparation.

13. Gymnastic

Professional gymnasts start their career at an early age. This is because the flexibility and agility needed for this sport need to be developed and brought to perfection. Flexibility is the most important thing for this sport, and it is hard to achieve it if you start at later stages of life.

12. Triathlon

Triathlon includes cycling, swimming and running. For this reason, it is necessary to be among the top at all three sports, which require agility, durability, and speed.

11. Rowing

Rowing isn’t so much about the speed or agility. It is all about power, strength, and temporal precision.

10. Sport climbing

Sport climbing is a new Olympic discipline. Sport climbers are athletes who possess immense endurance, flexibility, and agility. Each muscle of the body is activated during climbing, which demands perfect core strength.

9. Fencing

Fencing is one of the most demanding sports when counting both the physical and the mental aspect, as we have already noted. A good fencer needs hours and hours of practicing to obtain agility, flexibility and endurance. They should master their skills to perfection in order to avoid possible and often injuries and to make the best out of a sparring match. It is definitely one of the most physically demanding Olympic sports out there. 

8. Tennis

Being a tennis player means you need to balance all the sports skills and make them at a good level. These include endurance, strength, power, the special accent on speed, agility, and durability. And above all, a good mental practice.

7. Weightlifting

Weightlifting is a sport which undoubtedly demands the most power and strength. However, things like agility or speed are not required almost at all (comparing to power and strength), which does not put wrestling at the very top of physically demanding sports.

6. Water Polo

Balancing between staying on the water surface, developing the game strategy, managing the ball, there are so many things a water polo player needs to be good at. It is like being a professional at several sport disciplines at the same time.

5. Alpine skiing

What makes alpine skiing a very physically demanding Olympic sport is the speed, which needs to be controlled and maintained making a great pressure on the body.

4. Wrestling

Wrestling requires a lot of strength, power, and speed among other things. Even though it is not the hardest sport out there, it’s among the most exhausting sports, and one of the most physically demanding Olympic sports.

3. Football

Another team sport which requires the most durability (together with boxing) of all the Olympic sports. This is because the constant movement requires immense durability and strength as well, in order to be able to make it to the end of the match and give the best.

2. Ice hockey

Hockey is tough, and not everyone is capable of competing in this sport, especially when it comes to the Olympics. Durability, endurance, and strength are the qualities hockey players need the most.

1. Boxing

Demanding the most endurance, strength, agility, speed, and mental preparation as well, boxing honorably deserves the number one place as the most physically demanding Olympic sport.