Quote:

---

Luger dies in Olympics practice crash
February 12, 2010 6:34 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- A luge slider from Georgia was killed Friday when he crashed during an Olympic training session hours before the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Georgian Embassy and the International Olympic Committee said.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, was near the end of the course when he had a "serious crash" and was propelled off the track, according to the IOC. Video of the crash shows Kumaritashvili lying motionless after being thrown from his sled and striking a steel pole as he was coming out of the course's last turn.

He was given CPR by medical staff on site before being transported to a hospital where doctors were unable to revive him, the IOC said.

"It is difficult to remain composed," IOC President Jacques Rogge told reporters as he was overcome with emotion. "This is a very sad day. The IOC is in deep mourning."

An investigation into the cause of the crash is under way, the IOC said, and Rogge declined to comment on what safety precautions may be put into place pending the investigation's outcome.

"This is a time of sorrow, not a time to look for reasons," Rogge said at the brief news conference. "That will come in due time."

Kumaritashvili was scheduled to compete in the men's singles luge event, which begins Saturday. The official training session was being held just hours before the opening ceremony for the Winter Games.

"He came to Canada with hopes and dreams that this would be a magnificent occasion in his life," said John Furlong of the Vancouver Organizing Committee. "We are heartbroken beyond words to be sitting here."

Rogge said the IOC has been in contact with the Georgian Olympic Committee, Kumaritashvili's family and the president of the Georgian republic to express their condolences.

The luge is often called the "fastest sport on ice." Sliders use their legs and shoulders to steer small fiberglass sleds down an icy track, at times approaching or surpassing speeds of 90 mph, according to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Web site. They are positioned on their backs with their feet straight out in front of them and their heads back to be as aerodynamic as possible.

The luge track at the Whistler Sliding Center where Friday's crash occurred is about 4,500 feet long (1,371 meters). A track speed record was recorded February 21, 2009, when a single men's luge athlete topped 95 mph.

American luger Tony Benshoof said Friday that he had had problems in the lower portion of the track during one of his training runs.

"Because of the physics of the curves, and going at 95 mph, there's a really small margin for error," Benshoof said. "You really need to get it right from curve nine to get as far as curve 13, because once you get to curve 11 and 12, you're going too fast to correct yourself."

Kumaritashvili crashed on the 16th and final curve.

CNN's Steve Almasy contributed to this report.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

I dunno, even hittin a wall at that speed woulda prolly been lethal.

I think something like the crash netting used on aircraft carriers would be safer and more effective, while also being less expensive and easier to install.

-F

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by AURaptor:
I've opted out of watching the snuff video, though I did see a blur of a racer going down a section of track, which was ID'd by the t.v. as being Nodar.

Not sure how fast racers are moving at the point of where he left the track, but at 80-90 mph, a human body hitting anything is going to be real, real bad. Not sure how effectively they can engineer the track and surrounding area on the fly like that, and still get much confidence in the racers or the OIC.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Geezer:
When I was racing at Summit Point in W. Va. I saw a crash where a car left the track at a place no other car had gone off in the 35 years the track had been open. It was just a series of rare coincidences that sent a Spec Miata off another car, over the tire barrier, and into the woods. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but just goes to show that you can't plan for everything.

I don't doubt that the folks who designed the Whistler luge run though that they had every possible contingency covered, but in something as inherently dangerous as luge, there will always be that oddball chain of circumstance that catches you out.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by RahlMaclaren:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

I dunno, even hittin a wall at that speed woulda prolly been lethal.

I think something like the crash netting used on aircraft carriers would be safer and more effective, while also being less expensive and easier to install.

-F

---

If it's a smoothe wall, like the kind they already have in the turns, he might've bounced around like in a slide.

However, a net "wall" certainly would have slowed the forces moving his body better.

Whatever works.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
Very possible, Niki. Again, these are personality types that tend to look for ANY advantage.

---

Quote:

---

BTW Adolf Hitler designed the logo for the Olympics.

---

Quote:

---

The symbol of the Olympic Games is composed of five interlocking rings, colored blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field. This was originally designed in 1912 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Upon its initial introduction, de Coubertin stated the following in the August, 1912 edition of Revue Olympique:
The emblem chosen to illustrate and represent the world Congress of 1914...: five intertwined rings in different colors - blue, yellow, black, green, and red - are placed on the white field of the paper. These five rings represent the five parts of the world which now are won over to Olympism and willing to accept healthy competition.
These five rings represent the five continents of the world: Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
In his article published in the "Olympic Revue" the official magazine of the International Olympic Committee in November 1992, the American historian Robert Barney explains that the idea of the interlaced rings came to Pierre de Coubertin when he was in charge of the USFSA, an association founded by the union of two French sports associations and until 1925, responsible for representing the International Olympic Committee in France: The emblem of the union was two inter balllaced rings (like the vesica piscis typical interlaced marriage rings) and originally the idea of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung because for him the ring meant continuity and the human being.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Course workers modified the last turn where Kumaritashvili crashed, erected a two-metre-high wooden wall to cover the exposed steel beams on the turn and scraped and shaped ice from the edges in the final turn.

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by chrisisall:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Course workers modified the last turn where Kumaritashvili crashed, erected a two-metre-high wooden wall to cover the exposed steel beams on the turn and scraped and shaped ice from the edges in the final turn.

---

Design flaws should be worked out BEFORE use.
IMO.


The not-laughing Chrisisall

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Maybe some of the problem is in the process they use to qualify folk to compete in such events, put people in harms way before they are ready to compete at that level...

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by chrisisall:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Maybe some of the problem is in the process they use to qualify folk to compete in such events, put people in harms way before they are ready to compete at that level...

---

Possibly. Damn. 21 is too young to die in a sport. I know it happens, but doesn't that make certain Olympic athletes like, Evil Kenevals waiting to happen?
Not that I want a ban on the luge.


The frowning Chrisisall

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by chrisisall:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:

Maybe some of the problem is in the process they use to qualify folk to compete in such events, put people in harms way before they are ready to compete at that level...

---

Possibly. Damn. 21 is too young to die in a sport. I know it happens, but doesn't that make certain Olympic athletes like, Evil Kenevals waiting to happen?
Not that I want a ban on the luge.


The frowning Chrisisall

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:

So we move forward; we learn, and we make it safER, but can never make it risk-proof.

---