The president of Georgia has questioned the safety of lugers at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in the wake of the death of his countryman Nodar Kumaritashvili. An investigation by the International Luge Federation concluded the crash that killed Kumaritashvili was the result of human error but the Georgian president, Nodar Kumaritashvili, responded by saying “no sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death”.
The president of the ILF, Josef Fendt, described that track as “safe” after the investigation found that “there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track”.
But Saakashvili, while acknowledging that he was not competent to talk about the technical details of the sport or the accident, said: “One thing I know for sure: no sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death. No sports mistake is supposed to be fatal.”
He also dismissed suggestions that the 21-year-old slider was inexperienced.
“Nodar was a very rapidly progressing sportsman,” Saakashvili said. “He won qualification on his own merits. He didn’t come here because he represents some country. He came here because he had to compete. He had to go through … international competitions. He was training all around Europe. You cannot say it was inexperience.
“We were told by our sportsmen there was some suggestion that walls should have been higher there because there was [the chance] of this happening.”
Near the site where Kumaritashvili lost his life, officials had covered the exposed steel beams with a 12-foot-high wooden wall. Other posts were wrapped with padding. The contour of the final, sweeping turn was also changed as workers shaved the thick ice to stop racers from drifting too high on to the curved walls.
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After reading this and other stories regarding the accident I think a coroner’s inquest is required.
I could be wrong.
I’m no rocket scientist, but those steel pillars should have been either padded or netted off. Just my thoughts as I watched the accident video. Hindsight is clearly 20/20.
My condolences to his family and country. And Vancouver in general for the crappy weather.
I read that the track was running 10 mph faster than what the design indicated it should. I also read that the luge rider was poorly positioned on the track going into the last turn which contributed to his loss of control. Having the post padded would not have made any difference in the outcome, he still would have died. It was also reported that Nodar had talked to his father before the accident and said to his dad that the track scared him as it was so fast. This may have affected his ability to pilot his luge, being tense as opposed to relaxed, (if that is possible).
mid island mike
My condolences to the family as well. This fatal accident is tragic, both in the timing and the relative youth of the athlete but let’s keep a few facts firmly in the forefront. The luge is a dangerous sport; always has been and always will be. That isn’t going to change.
The athletes participate knowing full well that they will be sliding blindly at high speeds over an unforgiving surface around corners which generate g-forces sufficient to render most people unconscious. They will do so in a position which gives them very few ways to protect themselves if things go wrong. The protective gear for their body is a spandex suit and their helmet which can do little more than keep their brains within their skulls.
Despite all of this, the number of injuries and fatalities are relatively few. It’s kinda like a sliding version of sky-diving. Done correctly, it’s a blast but when things go wrong… ouch!
Padding the braces might make a difference at 10 or 20 km/h, maybe even 30 km/h but above 100 km/h, padding or no padding was irrelevant. A barrier which redirected the athlete away from the immobile braces might have helped but that’s not guaranteed. The changes they quickly threw together were designed to do exactly that- redirect the athlete but since no-one wiped out in that area, their ad hoc designed wasn’t tested.
The track was designed to allow the athletes to go fast. They’ve had literally thousands of competitive runs with no more than the usual number of accidents. The competition ran today without a single injury at speeds equal to and greater than that which killed Nodar Kumaritashvili. In all likelihood, it will continue to be used without modification and no-one will be hurt or killed.
An inquiry would do no more than consume the taxpayer’s money for a conclusion which is predictable…. something like this… There is no danger for the general public. The athlete knew the risks inherent in the activity and chose to participate of his own free will. Other athletes used the same track did so without incident or injury. Minor modifications will be suggested to mitigate the risk but it would only be a suggestion, rather than an order, because the preponderance of the evidence suggests the track is no more dangerous than any other similar facility.
So let the coroners do their job instead of calling for extraordinary and unnecessary measures out of misplaced compassion for a tragic situation.
Politicians will seek mileage out of this and others that know nothing of the sport will leap in with the cry of “If we save just one” and away we go. The coaches and athletes that are involved in this sport recognized the track as a good one and that the cause of death was pilot error. There was no consultation with the “on the ground” experts before the starting point was lowered, it was a pure and simple political move.
Political statements like “No error in sport should be capable of causing death” is one of those mileage makers. There’s a variety of sports that you can die in, if you blow it just right. Always have been and always will.
What will also come into this, being as it is, competition, will be the manipulation of the track for advantage to one team or another. The Canadians were saying that the lowering of the start gave the advantage to the Germans, for reasons that I know nothing of.
It’s a tragedy, pure and simple. A deadly dangerous sport that lived up to it’s reputation as dangerous and an exceptional young man is gone. The world is a poorer place for his passing. Such is life.
Luge is like many other sports that involve speed – dangerous, sometimes lethally so, and the athletes involved know that.
This is a regrettable and unfortunate accident but that is all it is.
The organizers of said events had allowed an extra week of training for the contestants and not one showed up to take advantage of said sites.
Drudge has a story on how a male US figure skater has received threats due to his using real fur on his costume. He opted to stay at the olympic village instead of a hotel. Said it was dangerous to stay downtown.
With the deportation of one US protester and other arrests the Police Chief thinks things will calm down now.
And, all things considered, if he was afraid of that track, and said he would win or die, he should have opted to stay out of the competition.
It was an accident, and a tragic one, but so is the head on crash of two trains today, with many more deaths.