Sports Insurance

The rush of adrenalin, changing life styles and disposable income in the hands of youngsters have seen an increase in the present generation of youth experimenting in adventure sports like bungee jumping, mountaineering etc.  With the increased demand for these adventure sports activities new opportunities are coming up across India which is abundantly blessed with natural sources for mountaineering, paragliding and so on. Specialised adventure organising companies have mushroomed in India offering these activities.

These sporting events require expensive equipments and the chances of loss or damage to these equipments are high. Adventure sports always have the element of high risk accidents which will have a huge impact on the health of the sport enthusiast. All risks associated with the sport and the equipment had to be borne  by the individual himself.

Across the world, adventure sports insurance is a huge market. But unfortunately Indian insurers have shied away from insuring sporting equipments and accidents for a long time. Those of us who own mediclaim policies would have read among the list of exclusions that treatment costs arising out of injuries from extreme sporting activities would not be covered. Few public sector insurers offer sports insurance cover to amateur sportsmen covering loss or damage to their sporting equipments, personal effects and clothing, personal accidents, and public legal liability of the insured. However, the list of sports covered is very limited like cricket, golf, sporting guns and so on  and does not include adventure sports.

Don't despair! For adventure sporting enthusiasts, finally private sector insurers have started offering insurance cover.  Certain private sector players have started covering extreme sporting activities like mountaineering, paragliding, scuba diving, ballooning, bungee jumping and hand gliding. These insurers also do not cover professional sports persons, but only amateur sports enthusiasts.

These sports insurers cover death, and injuries arising out of these sporting activities. Few of these private insurers have started clubbing sports insurance along with their travel insurance as  very often it is during holidaying that adventure sports activities are undertaken by individuals.

The next time you feel the rush of adrenalin, wanting to engage in adventurous activities, check whether you are adequately covered.