Luger dies in BC

[schmalts]

Man, i saw the video yesterday on TV and it make me gasp I am glad they honored him in the opening ceremonies.
Poor Kid didn't know what happened and probably did not feel much pain or at least i hope. Very sad thing to happen for the him, the rest of the lugers and the games in general.
Can anyone ever recall anyone getting killed in the games before?

 

[WapitiBob]

Unfortunate and avoidable in this day and age.

 

[noharleyyet]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=412058.html?__source=msnhomepage&cid=

FIL secretary general Svein Romstad said the G-forces generated by Kumaritashvili exiting the 15th curve and entering the 16th and final curve "literally collapsed his body, rendering it difficult to control the sled, which in this case he was not able to do.

"Once this happened, he was literally at the mercy of the path of the sled," Romstad said.

Including past training sessions starting last November, Kumaritashvili had 26 runs down the icy chute in all, and data distributed by the FIL indicated that he crashed at least three times around the area of the final curve.

From the men's luge start, which won't be used going forward during these Olympics, Kumaritashvili crashed four times in 16 tries.


Concerns about the lightning-fast course had been raised for months. There were worries that the $100 million-plus venue was too technically difficult, and a lack of significant practice time by everyone but the host nation's sliders would result in a rash of accidents.

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

 

[genesis273]

Wow, I saw an interview that was done in the last few days, before the crash and the lugers were saying how fast and dangerous, in so many words, this track was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJDZKUekqKg


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."

"literally collapsed his body, rendering it difficult to control the sled".

How is that human error?

Another one of those, "It ain`t my fault"

 

[Bucnutz.wis]

I saw this on the news tonight... It takes some big nads to run a course like that at those speeds. Not for me.. no, no - I have small ones.