# 1 dead at olympics



## Tbird (Oct 5, 2009)

Not a great way to start the Olympics. A male luger is killed after losing control on the track. Maybe a little too fast for a sport where control is minimal.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/skeleton/...l#georgian+luger+major+crash+training&cid=msn


----------



## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

Poor guy, my co-worker showed me the video earlier before it was taken down everywhere. It wasn't pretty....


----------



## Tbird (Oct 5, 2009)

gucci17 said:


> Poor guy, my co-worker showed me the video earlier before it was taken down everywhere. It wasn't pretty....


I didn't see that but 144.3 km on ice??? No brakes, nothing to really control it. There needs to be sometime in place to regulate how the tracks are made. They need to slow them down a little. Just the way F1 did it years ago, with cichanes (I'm not sure I spelt that right. LOL) and threaded tires. I like to go fast too but sometimes there's a limit.


----------



## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

The video is still up at CTV... and my heart goes out to the Georgian team.


----------



## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

he just bumped out at a corner





Tbird said:


> I didn't see that but 144.3 km on ice??? No brakes, nothing to really control it. There needs to be sometime in place to regulate how the tracks are made. They need to slow them down a little. Just the way F1 did it years ago, with cichanes (I'm not sure I spelt that right. LOL) and threaded tires. I like to go fast too but sometimes there's a limit.


that's why we have air bags

xD


----------



## blackninja (Dec 3, 2009)

Canada is the only country that never won a gold medal as a hosting country in the history of the Olympics. I hope should we win in this event it will not taint our reputation and be seen as a country that was willing to do what ever it took to maintain some home ice advantage. The opening ceremony was amateurishly disappointing. Hopefully the worst is behind us. Go get em!! guys.


----------



## ryno1974 (Dec 6, 2009)

blackninja said:


> Canada is the only country that never won a gold medal as a hosting country in the history of the Olympics. I hope should we win in this event it will not taint our reputation and be seen as a country that was willing to do what ever it took to maintain some home ice advantage. The opening ceremony was amateurishly disappointing. Hopefully the worst is behind us. Go get em!! guys.


Not sure what ceremonies you were watching, but with the exception of the malfunction during the indoor lighting of the bowl, the ceremonies were great. Did you watch them, or just assume that since it was Canadian it was lacking?

As for the death of the athlete from Georgia, read up on your facts. ALL athletes were invited to pre-Olympic trials on the track - none took advantage of it. Canada did nothing different than every other country has done when they hosted the olympics - it is poor timing to use the tragic (accidental) death of an up and coming young athlete as a reason to complain about your country.


----------



## blackninja (Dec 3, 2009)

ryno1974 said:


> Not sure what ceremonies you were watching, but with the exception of the malfunction during the indoor lighting of the bowl, the ceremonies were great. Did you watch them, or just assume that since it was Canadian it was lacking?
> 
> As for the death of the athlete from Georgia, read up on your facts. ALL athletes were invited to pre-Olympic trials on the track - none took advantage of it. Canada did nothing different than every other country has done when they hosted the olympics - it is poor timing to use the tragic (accidental) death of an up and coming young athlete as a reason to complain about your country.


The Olympic opening ceremony was discussed being the topic of the week at the "The DRAS annual Awards banquet on Saturday February 13, at the Toronto Zoo." at our table and that was the general conclusion...the music was slow, too many native Indian dancers, uninspiring and void of any enthusiasm. There has never been a death in that event for 35 years or ever. The fact they had to alter the course is taken as proof it was not designed properly. It it not my opinion alone that by limiting access to the course to maintain home ice advantage and the poorly designed course overwhelmed a young less experienced athlete. We have just proven we can win gold in other events so was this even necessary.


----------



## Mr Fishies (Sep 21, 2007)

It's a tragic thing whenever an athlete dies in pursuit of sport. However, I think it would be pertinent link to the comments of the man who designed the track (Udo Gurgel) and Georg Hackl (probably the winningest luge competitor in Olympic and world competition). While saying the track can be modified to help prevent an occurrence like this from happening again, it was said yet again (this time by Hackl) that it was driver error that led to the driver leaving the track and striking the post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/13/olympics-luge-track-desig_n_461362.html

Racing, any kind of racing is inherently dangerous. End of story.

Everyone who competes in racing at a professional, world championship or Olympic level is aware of the risks each and every time they get in or on the luge, bobsled, skis, motorcycle or car. Nobody expects to die when they get up in the morning, but some people take risks in the name of sport the rest of us won't and they unfortunately don't always beat the odds.

While it's easy for people to sit on the sidelines and say how things should have been done differently, slow the racers down (which is the opposite of racing), add barriers, nets etc, the fact is almost every safety change, device, innovation in almost every sport has an injury or death linked to it's adoption.
Dale Earnhardt and the HANS device
Greg Moore and the paving of grass track infields
SAFER barriers (many driver, many injuries)
F1 wheel tethers and Ayerton Senna and several track marshals.
Catch fences surrounding race tracks (many drivers and fans)
Catch fences and hay bales surrounding ski tracks (many racers)
Clint Malarchuk's injury and neck protectors in hockey
the list goes on...
The same can be said for most safety innovations in cars, planes, trains, almost anything that moves fast enough to injure it's occupants. Someone almost always has to get hurt for change to happen. Cars didn't have seat belts until the 60s. Motorcyclists didn't always legally have to wear helmets, neither did kids on bikes. Are kids mandated to wear bike helmets now because nobody ever received a brain injury in a bicycle accident? No, kids have been hurt, things change to protect them. That's the way the world works.

The configuration at the end of that track looks like every other track I recall seeing on TV. Low track walls with an overhanging roof - and posts. Will this incident change the safety features found on luge tracks around the world? Probably. But "coulda, shoulda, woulda" and playing devil's advocate after the fact doesn't change anything and it doesn't mean that every luge track on the planet has been improperly designed. It means something nobody expected has happened, a hard lesson has been learned and things will change. That's the way the world works.

The unsupported and unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that the track was intentionally designed to be dangerous and favor Canadian racers over competitors from around the world is ludicrous. Engineers, including those who design and build sliding tracks are bound by professional code not to endanger life and the environment with their works. "Hi Udo, we want a track that is so fast and so dangerous, nobody except people who practice on it yearly will be safe". It doesn't work that way.

Finally, your statement that "There has never been a death in that event for 35 years or ever." is very misleading. There were deaths in 1964 and 1975. Typically, you shouldn't words like "never & ever" for something that has happened.

It was tragic. It's sad. I feel for his team and family and friends back in his home country. Cheapening Kumaritashvili's death by twisting it into an attack on the VOC and track designers is an insult to him, the IOC, VOC, engineers and the rest of us who read the BS soapbox preaching and inane comments in this thread and others on various news sites.


----------



## blackninja (Dec 3, 2009)

Canadian officials have already lodged complain about the German team using magnets to give them an edge. We are notorious for complaining about unfairness and cheating but very silent when a death has occurred on account of a track designed to give Canadians and edge because of home ice advantage. It is hard to see Canadians as cheaters but we were never seen as environmental polluters either or human rights violators.


----------



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

home ice advantage? Nope. That can be said for every new track built that is faster than a previous one. Is there actually an advantage to the home team....maybe. But these guys train and practice on multiple tracks all over. the guy was a newish luger IIRC. I also hear it's also the first time a sledder had left the track like that. As said already, any new tragedy brings improvements.


----------



## clubsoda (Oct 10, 2009)

wow, need to put a seat belt on those thing!


----------



## ryno1974 (Dec 6, 2009)

blackninja said:


> too many native Indian dancers


Nice of you to throw a little racism in for good measure. You realize that calling Aboriginal Canadians Indians is like calling African Americans "Cloured" or "*******".

Indians come from India. Indigenous people from Canada are called Aboriginal.


----------

