Olympic Luge Fatality

[TexasTerror]

A co-worker just showed me the video of his training run. Just absolutely lost control and went flying off and hit some uncovered steel. Condolences to the fellow athletes and to the family of this Olympian from Georgia (the country)...

One thing in the below article is that they question the safety of the track for those lesser luge participants. Wonder if the Olympic folks can make any changes prior to the start of competition...


VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A men's luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia died Friday after a crash during training, an Olympic official with direct knowledge of the situation said.

The death cast a shocking pall over the Vancouver Olympics hours before the opening ceremony.

The official told The Associated Press that the International Olympic Committee received confirmation of Nodar Kumaritashvili's death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the 21-year-old luger's family hadn't been notified yet.

http://sports.espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/luge/news/story?id=4909034

[NHwildEcat]

I just saw this news when I hoped on Yahoo...it really is too bad. This is one of my favorite events, hopefully the officals can make sure this was just a freak accident and that the track is indeed safe enough for competition.

[Rob Iola]

Hey - razor's edge - would you want anything less for the Olympics? Heck yeah it's dangerous, and my condolences to the poor guy's family (at least it was pretty instantaneous for him), but it's an inherently risky sport...

UPDATE - ok I finally saw the video - it's absolutely criminal to have those pillars right by the track, and not even padded (although I don't think any amount of padding would've saved this poor guy) - I smell a huge bruhaha brewing, and possibly a serious impact in how they run the luge/bobsled/skeleton events these next couple of weeks...

[TexasTerror]

Whether you agree or not, the Georgia team will still compete...


VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Athletes from the nation of Georgia will compete in the Vancouver Olympics despite the death of their teammate, luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.

Georgia Minister of Culture and Sport Nikolos Rurua says the Georgian team "decided to be loyal to the spirit of the Olympic Games."

He says the athletes will "dedicate their performances to their fallen comrade."

Credit: Yahoo/Associated Press (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100213/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_luger_dies_georgia_team)

[OxSoxUNH05]

Aren't the athletes saying that the track is down right dangerous?! why not delay the competition and move the sliding events to like calgary, salt lake or Lake placid?

[93henfan]

They need, at the very least, to put up some netting of some sort outside the turn where that guy left the track. Completely inexcusable to have that vulnerability in the course.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I just saw the video. There is no way they should be racing under the current setup. Those rails are absurd.

That poor guy suffered a terrible death. It's inexcusable for a design like that in 2010. What moron came up with that.?It's one thing for this type of athlete to go out, but it shouldn't be because of something like this.

[ngineer]

Hey - razor's edge - would you want anything less for the Olympics? Heck yeah it's dangerous, and my condolences to the poor guy's family (at least it was pretty instantaneous for him), but it's an inherently risky sport...

UPDATE - ok I finally saw the video - it's absolutely criminal to have those pillars right by the track, and not even padded (although I don't think any amount of padding would've saved this poor guy) - I smell a huge bruhaha brewing, and possibly a serious impact in how they run the luge/bobsled/skeleton events these next couple of weeks...

I agree. I saw the tape, and even if padded, he would have been killed from the internal injuries. So sad. Question is why the structure had to be so close to the track.

[TexasTerror]

Some more is coming out, the latest is that his father did an interview, showing that the Olympic luger was concerned about the course and one of the turns...


"He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, 'Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns.'

"I said, 'Put your legs down on the ice to slow down,' but he said if he started the course he would finish it. ... He was brave."

Credit: Chris Chase/Yahoo Sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Luger-who-died-told-father-he-was-terrified-of?urn=oly,219592)

[ngineer]

The comment by one of the competitors about 'using the athletes as "crash dummies" ' was very apropos. In this day and age, there is no excuse and some people at the Olympics got their values warped.