Jump off a cliff. Slide down a mountain. Soar 20 feet above a snowy halfpipe. These are just a few of the things extreme sport athletes willingly do every day, things the average person would never consider attempting. With the overwhelming success of sports network ESPN’s X Games, the subculture of extreme sports became mainstream, even becoming part of the Olympic Games. American snowboarder Shaun White became not just one of the most popular extreme athletes, but one of the most popular athletes of any kind in the world when he won the gold medal in the halfpipe event at the 2006 Winter Olympics. From Snowboard Big Air to BMX Vert, and Moto X to Ski Slopestyle, extreme sports have changed the language and culture of mainstream athletics. The slacker image is gone…these athletes are the real thing. Each book in the Inside the World of Sports series takes you from the very beginning of a sport to a look at its future. Inside these pages, learn more about extreme sports’ greatest moments, iconic athletes, and what the future holds for the games. Each title in this series contains color photos throughout and back matter including: a chronology, glossary of terms for each sport, an index, and further reading lists for books and internet resources. Key Icons appear throughout the books in this series in an effort to encourage library readers to build knowledge, gain awareness, explore possibilities and expand their viewpoints through our content rich non-fiction books. Key Icons in this series are as follows: Educational Videos are offered throughout the first chapter, through the use of a QR code that when scanned takes the student to an online video showing a greatest moment in sports’ history. This gives the readers additional content to supplement the text. Words to Understand are shown at the front of each chapter with definitions. These words are set in boldfaced type in that chapter, so that readers are able to reference back to the definitions--building their vocabulary and enhancing their reading comprehension. Text-Dependent Questions are placed at the end of each chapter. They challenge the reader’s comprehension of the chapter they have just read, while sending the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. Research Projects are provided at the end of each chapter as well and provide readers with suggestions for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis.
