Beijing Winter Olympics 2022: Why luge is the most dangerous winter sport

When every Winter Olympics passes, the conversation quickly turns to how dangerous everything seems to be. Well, almost everything.

The Winter Olympics is largely about speed at extreme temperatures, trying to tame conditions that maybe shouldn't always be tamed.

Four athletes have died during the Winter Olympics in the history of the games. Two deaths have come in luge, one in alpine skiing and one in the demonstration sport of speed skiing.

The alpine skier who died was Australian Ross Milne, a young speed specialist at his first Olympics in 1964. Milne's brother, Malcolm, would later be the Australian flag bearer and compete at two Olympics. Malcolm would also be the first non-European to win a World Cup downhill race, breaking ground for skiers internationally.

For experts, these are still likely the most dangerous disciplines on show, but what about for the beginners and intermediates.

These are how the sports rank in terms of danger from the perspective of those on the couch at home.

While you can fall over a fair bit when launching a stone, it's relatively safe.

The ice is surprisingly sticky, and the slider only takes a little bit to get used to.

You might fall over, trip on a stone or have one bang into your ankle at some speed. 

You are going to get really tired, but you should be pretty safe.

Falling at speed down a hill might be a challenge, but you might throw in the towel before then.

Realistically, a beginner isn't going to do crazy jumps.

You might fall over, it might feel pretty bad. But your figures are going to be pretty basic, and the real danger ramps up with the difficulty.

This is a balanced rating – it's all pretty dangerous by this point. As a brake in the two or four-person bobsleigh, not much is required