REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili Dies In Training Accident

POSTED BY: RAHLMACLAREN
UPDATED: Saturday, February 13, 2010 17:36
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Friday, February 12, 2010 2:34 PM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb



http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/12/olympic.luge.crash/index.html?hpt=
C1

Warning: I recommend you DO NOT play the video. Once it's in your brain, it's hard to delete.

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.



Why the FUCK (enunciate "fuck") didn't they put a wall between the track and those supports!!!
*big heavy sigh*

I'm still in shock, here.


--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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Friday, February 12, 2010 2:50 PM

CUDA77

Like woman, I am a mystery.


Truly horrific way to start the games.


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Friday, February 12, 2010 8:10 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Guess they won't get the traditional " greatest Olympic games ever" farwell , huh?





Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Friday, February 12, 2010 9:16 PM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb


I think charges should be brought against whoever said the track was "finished".

GODS DAMMIT!, if they had JUST put wall (padding on the supports would NOT help at +100 mph) around the WHOLE track (especially coming off curves where the weird shit happens), we would be hearing about a major case of road rash instead of a death.

If they DON'T fix this problem, the luge teams SHOULD boycott.

What good is a medal if you ain't around to enjoy it. (You don't have to be on the podium or from the same country to be happy someone got a gold/silver/bronze)



--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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Friday, February 12, 2010 10:52 PM

GINOBIFFARONI


Just moving my comment to the thread in which it belongs


" The incident is being investigated by the police, the Olympic Committee, and the international Luge association...

I'm willing to give them a day or two to hear what they have to say before I pass judgment on them. "


from a reporter in Whistler

" There will be luge competition Saturday as scheduled after modifications to track. "


The rest remains to be seen








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Saturday, February 13, 2010 3:33 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Yeah, I saw the video on the nightly news yesterday. That's an image I can't unsee. :(

As to the track, you do everything you can, you THINK you've got every contingency covered, but there are always the unforeseen circumstances and the unexpected.


I hope they get it fixed, but pushing the limits is inherently risky. I'm not at this point willing to say it was all the track designer's fault, or all the luge rider's fault, or all ANY one person's fault. It happened, it was a confluence of horrific events that had the worst possible outcome, and it's a great loss for the rider, his friends and family, and his nation. My sympathies are with them.

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:14 AM

CHRISISALL


That is so effed-up. And I saw the video. Seen that kind of thing in various movies that you've all seen, but IRL it's just saddening.




Chrisisall

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 6:49 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Luckily I haven't seen the video, tho' I heard about it briefly and my heart sank. Thanx for the story, which I will read, and it will be a test of will power if I can keep from watching the video. You know, that "morbid curiosity" thing. I'm usually pretty good at it; when I drive by accidents I try to get past as quickly as possible (to avoid adding to the lookey-loo traffic snarl) and not to look. We'll see how well I do with this. After reading the story, I think I might be strong enough not to watch.

As the thing itself, from what Benshoof said, there was a problem they should have been aware of and fixed, which makes it doubly sad. When athletes compete in dangerous sports, I know they do so with the knowledge they could be injured or killed. But they also do so, I'm sure, with the expectation that those responsible have set things up to avoid any unnecessary accidents, and they were failed this time.

All I can wish is that it was instantaneous and he didn't suffer (which sounds like the case); beyond that, there's nothing to say.



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Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:41 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Nations LIKE world records being broken on their turf. I read an article how the Canadian speed-skating track is engineered to keep the ice temps really cold in the straightaways, and just slightly warmer in the in the turns.

So every nation does its best, within the rules, to make their tracks, ski jumps, running tracks, etc faster and faster. This time, they neglected safety.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:43 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!


"Those luge guys are CRAZY!!!"
-99% of planet Earth





"The thrill of victory...and the agony of defeat."
-ABC Wide World of Sports

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:48 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


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.





Director: Bureau of Bigfoot Affairs

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 8:20 AM

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

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 8:54 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!


Vinko "The Agony Of Defeat" Bogataj:



Motorcycle racers have a high mortality rate, since crash speeds are often over 100 mph up to 200 mph, sometimes racing on public streets like the Isle of Man. But they also survive many crashes today that would've been fatal 20 years ago, due to improved safety gear -- thick leather suits with hard plastic body armor.



Motocross riders and racing drivers wear neck braces. Sledders and skiers should pay attention... But hitting a tree, pole, sharp-edged "guardrail", or cement wall is never good.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:04 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


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"

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:08 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


I'm sure they did, Geezer, and maybe it was just miscommunication. But that other guy mentioning he had problems in the same area; did he not mention that to them, I wonder? If not, yeah, they might have thought they'd done all they could; but if so, why didn't they listen? Just makes me wonder.



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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:09 AM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb


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.



--------------------------------------------------
Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:15 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


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.



Reports are that he was traveling at 88mph when he came off the turn.

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:31 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


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"



Bingo. Anyone remember the Mercedes-Benz CLR-GT1 LeMans racers from about a decade back? They had planned for every contingency, spent thousands of hours fine-tuning the aerodynamics in the wind tunnel - and the only thing they DIDN'T take into account was the possibility that you could be coming over a small crest in the race course while behind another car at high speed, which would upset the aerodynamics just enough to put more air underneath the front of the car, resulting in what hydroplane boat racers refer to as a "blowover".

And sure enough, it happened. Twice. Benz were forced to withdraw amid safely concerns. One of the cars left the course at 160mph and went off course into the woods. The driver, if I recall, sprained his ankle.



So yes, you plan for every contingency, but you still miss something, often something tiny and seemingly incidental, until it bites you in the ass.

I imagine luge sliders are somewhat like most other racers or competitive people, in that they might make an offhand REMARK about a slight concern they have with a certain portion of the course, but they aren't going to raise a stink, lest they be thought of as somehow "less manly" or afraid. Jackie Stewart was one of the best Formula One drivers in history when he all but threatened to walk away from racing if measures weren't taken to improve driver safety. And he was ridiculed by almost every other driver for being a pansy about it. Dale Earnhardt, Sr was a "man's man" as a driver, and didn't like the full-face helmets that everyone else was wearing. His continued use of the open-face design very probably cost him his life.

You can suspect (or even KNOW) that there's a possible safety issue, and not report it because you don't want to be "that guy". Or, more likely, you can have a bad run and think, "Wow, that was kinda freaky; that could have gone really badly if..." but then just chalk it up to some mistake YOU made, not the course designers. It happens.

In the meantime, they're raising the retaining walls and looking into it. Once freak accident is just that, albeit a tragic accident; two or more starts to indicate a pattern, and therefore a design issue.



Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:34 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


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.




When they talk about taller walls, I take it to mean taller walls flush with the top edge of the luge track, so you wouldn't so much HIT the wall as Frem was talking about, but slide and bounce along it like in a water slide, like you were saying. And while you might get bruised up that way, and maybe even dislocate a shoulder or hip, and MAYBE even get a concussion, you're not nearly as likely to die as when you smack head-first at 88mph into an immovable abutment.

And my issue with the crash netting is that it might "grab" fingers, hands, legs, or arms and really tear things up as your body keeps moving (I've had part of my body stop before, when the rest of me kept going forward at 45mph; it's not pretty, even 25 years late. 88mph could still be lethal if you get your extremities snagged up in the netting). And if you don't make the netting strong enough to take the impact, you tear right through it and it hardly slows you down at all.


Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:36 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Ooops.
Quote:

I imagine luge sliders are somewhat like most other racers or competitive people, in that they might make an offhand REMARK about a slight concern they have with a certain portion of the course, but they aren't going to raise a stink, lest they be thought of as somehow "less manly" or afraid
You may well have nailed it there!

Another thought...is it possible nobody who noticed it on their run didn't mention it because they made it through and thought that gave them an advantage over those who couldn't? Sounds crass, but if you figure they didn't think anyone would suffer a horrific accident like what happened, might that not explain the fact nobody spoke up?



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Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:41 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Very possible, Niki. Again, these are personality types that tend to look for ANY advantage.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:11 AM

GINOBIFFARONI


Quote:

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



Exactly, I just seen on the TV they are now starting the men from the same box as the womans start which is suppose to reduce the track speed slightly, and the lugers are already complaining about it...

Most of them want to set records, etc

and you throw the dice every time you push those sorts of limits...



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Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:19 AM

GINOBIFFARONI


http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/luge/story/2010/02/13/spo-luge-training-del
ay.html



Training reopens at luge track


Luge training resumed at the Whistler Sliding Centre track Saturday, one day after a Georgian slider died during a training run.

The sixth men's training session was supposed to resume at 8 a.m. PT after being cancelled Friday, but was pushed back until 9:02 a.m. so course officials could finish grooming the course. Each athlete will take two more training runs.

Competition begins at 5 p.m. with the first two runs. The remaining two runs take place Sunday.

Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old slider from Borjomi, Georgia, died Friday after he crashed in the final curve. He was travelling at nearly 140 km/h when he slammed into an unpadded steel support pole.

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.

Luge officials also announced that the men would start their runs from the women's start gate, which is further down the track. By adjusting the start, the men will not be able to reach their top speeds, which have topped 150 km/h this week, and the vertical drop won't be as severe.

Concerns about the lightning-fast course had been raised for months. The $105-million sliding centre, on the southeast face of Blackcomb Mountain, has been billed as a technically difficult wild ride. Kumaritashvili's crash happened at the track's fastest point.

The 1,450-metre course has 16 turns and drops steeply for 152 metres, the longest drop of any track in the world. The average grade is about 11 per cent, including two stomach-inverting drops of 20 per cent.

The International Luge Federation and Vancouver Olympic officials said Friday night their investigation showed that the crash was the result of human error and there was "no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track."

In a joint statement, they said Kumaritashvili was late coming out of the next-to-last turn and failed to compensate.


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Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:38 AM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!



http://www.airfence.com

Motorcycle racers now demand "air fencing" to protect them from hard walls and poles. Why they don't use it at the PrOlympics is beyond negligence.



BTW Adolf Hitler designed the logo for the Olympics.




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Saturday, February 13, 2010 12:37 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


Quote:

BTW Adolf Hitler designed the logo for the Olympics.



Nope. Not even close, according to Wiki:

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.



It DOES say that the five rings got more widespread exposure and usage in the run-up to the 1936 Berlin games, but that's like saying that Hitler invented rocketry because Germans used some rockets.

Mike

Work is the curse of the Drinking Class.
- Oscar Wilde

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 3:48 PM

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

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 4:06 PM

GINOBIFFARONI


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



The track has been in use since 2007

I think the big problem with it, is it is a fast, technically difficult track that the top Lugers in the world can handle,

But not every Olympic competitor has the same experience, and this guy apparently over-controlled into the corner he lost it in and did something that had never happened before.

I think the fix is cosmetic, designed to show they are doing something...

At that speed something goes wrong, and you don't react the right way, right away...

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...







Either you Are with the terrorists, or ... you Are with the terrorists

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers.
What you do today, might Burn Your Ass Tomorrow"

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 4:16 PM

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

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 4:58 PM

GINOBIFFARONI


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



Look at it this way, how much experience do you need to get a trip to the Olympics in luge as part of the Canadian Team ? , The US Team ?, The German Team ? how many runs on how many courses do those guys do before they go ?

Smaller countrys new to all this... not so much

The competition to get that opportunity ensures you have the experience and judgment to get there, and be relatively safe doing it...

The Olympics bends over backwards to be inclusive of everyone, which is a great and noble thing...

But maybe not the right thing in some sports, which require that much more training to make it safe.

The Jamaican Bobsled Team were a great success despite the same sort of problems,

but watching them run, even with their crash... they didn't push the limit and went for clean runs instead within their limits, which gradually became faster as they found a comfort zone.

had they went all out, it may not of ended well





Either you Are with the terrorists, or ... you Are with the terrorists

Life is like a jar of Jalapeño peppers.
What you do today, might Burn Your Ass Tomorrow"

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 5:03 PM

CHRISISALL


Logical.


The considering Chrisisall

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 5:27 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)


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



There's a middle ground between just shrugging it off and saying "Shit happens" and banning something outright. You LEARN from the things that go wrong, and you keep learning, keep making it safer. I've seen HORRIFIC crashes in F1 racing, and seen the people simply walk away. The horrific stuff becomes so easy to fix, and then it's something so mundane and simple that can lead to tragedy. Last year the top Ferrari drive almost died on course when a suspension spring fell out of a car ahead of him, bounced on the course, and impacted his helmet at over 180mph, knocking him unconscious, whereupon his car speared straight off the course into the tire wall. He very nearly died, had to have emergency brain surgery, lost sight in his left eye for a time, and hopes to be back racing this year.

All for something as stupid and simple as a spring that wasn't properly installed and restrained. But safety marches on, and that's hopefully the last time THAT will be a problem.

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

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Saturday, February 13, 2010 5:36 PM

CHRISISALL


Quote:

Originally posted by Kwicko:

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

Hell, can we make LIFE risk-proof?
I see your point.


The laughing Chrisisall

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