Nodar Kumaritashvili Olympic Luger Dead at 21

[Deno]

A men's Olympic luger competing for the Republic of Georgia died Friday after a crash during a training run, hours before the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Games. He was 21.

Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled near the end of his run at the Whistler Sliding Center and flipped over the track wall into a steel pole, German IOC official Thomas Bach told The Agence France-Presse.

I think 90 miles an hour is a bit fast for one thing but someone has to be responsible for this crap happening. The fact that other have wreck on this track tells me something.

 

[ryan25yo]

What a damn shame! I agree that someone is responsible for NOT having properly secured the area. RIP

 

[798686]

They gotta sort the track out if it's that dangerous. It's meant to look terrifying, but you can't have ppl getting killed.

 

[Rikter8]

Yep, having other near misses and accounts of these atheletes saying "I've never seen anything like this before" tells you that somebody else is going to get killed or seriously injured.

They should do something to either slow the track down or figure out what in the track is causing people to loose control. If they cant - then they should hold off that event until they do.

 

[D_Tim McGnaw]

I'm doubly upset, firstly a young man is dead, a talented and enthusiastic young man at that, and secondly I am sad for Georgia, a country which has precious little good PR internationally and who's talent and gifts go little recorded by the rest of the world.

 

[deleted3782]

The video is harsh. Yes everyone knows that the luge is dangerous...but is seems that this run is particularly dangrous. There have been a few other acccidents on it today. I don't know anything about luge construction, but maybe this one needs a roof? That might not have helped this fellow at all...

 

[B_Nick8]

The video is harsh.

It is. I just saw it and it's incredibly disturbing.

 

[ital8]

I saw it too, on the news. He was going near 90 mph. Just as what the other posters have said, this course is extremely dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else gets injured badly or even killed. Here is an article about it.

Luge must be shut down after tragedy - 2010 Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

 

[156159]

I just saw the video as well. It's truly tragic that a ambitious young athlete like Kumaritashvili had to suffer something like this. His dedication at the opening ceremony was certainly heartfelt.

 

[Deno]

I saw the Georgian team walk in opening night and you could see the emotion on there faces, they were not all smiles like most of the teams. And the tall fellow in the middle of the group looked like he was near tears but still one fucking handsome hottie. I didn't see a picture of the other slider in there group so I don't know which one he was.

 

[invisibleman]

Ice slides are dangerous, period. Look at the armor protection those athletes have. And flying down at those speeds...going at weird angles at those accelerated speeds. I bet that some engineer is going to get served some papers for poor track design.

 

[B_jeepguy2]

Seriously, If the wall had been taller and had a plexiglass barrier above it to keep the guy ON THE TRACK he would have probably slid across the finish line minus his sled with nothing more than a bruised ego. Absolute worse case possibly a broken bone or a concussion...but he would not be DEAD. That is a very unsafe and poorly designed track!

 

[Pandora77]

Terrible and really sad :-(
They have made changes now. They built really high walls, and also the men now start at the woman's start, which is about 200 meters lower than the normal start. That will affect the speed, they wont be as fast anymore.

 

[D_Andreas Sukov]

whats sad is that he was 21. Two years older than me. All deaths are sad, but that made it hit home to me.

 

[BobLeeSwagger]

Of course it's tragic for his family and loved ones and I wouldn't wish such a thing on anyone. But let me play devil's advocate here...

Why would anyone watch the luge if there weren't a risk of injury or death? The fact that it's dangerous is one of its few reasons for being. If you put up safety barriers to prevent deaths and injuries, then you're giving out a gold medal for sledding. Sledding! High tech sleds have created the potential to sled faster than humans should ever try to, then we are horrified when someone dies while trying it. It was a shame that Dale Earnhardt died too, but he was participating in a sport in which there's a risk of dying, in which a significant portion of the audience was hoping to see a violent crash of some kind. He made a great living from taking those risks.

If this luger did anything wrong, it's dedicating himself to a "sport" in which he could never hope to make enough money to make up for the risks that he took.

 

[Qua]

If I'm not mistaken the track was shortened (the starting point moved forward) to slow the runs down so that the risk of losing control is lowered.