Vancouver 2010 Olympic Tragedy
What could possibly have been a more devastating loss for these Olympics than to have Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili lose his all too young life on Friday, during a trial run at the luge track?
Nothing.
But I will not belabor this point out of respect for his family. My thoughts are with them, his teammates, friends and all the brave Georgian people who have fought so gallantly for their true independence from the evil clutches of the former Soviet Union and then Russian Federation.
Just what the hell are we doing building the “fastest luge track on earth”??? What idiot felt this necessary?
Is this REALLY necessary, bloody hell? What a load of crap! Total pish. Why is it necessary to shoot a human being around a track at 140 km/hour? What if it was only 130 km/hr.? Is this some kind of failure? Complete idiots. Think safety, not speed. Death is hardly sexy. Fools.
For those of you that are unaware: The crash did not kill courageous Mr. Kumaritshvili. The force alone of blowing him from the track would have torn his aorta, for certain. In a car, he MIGHT have made it…20% chance. But like this, uncovered, as it were, and airborne–not a hope. The efforts to resuscitate were futile.
Here is a possible sense of foreboding that this eventually fallen hero might have felt. And here, is a most sensible comment by the Georgian leader.
There is no need to amp-up the speeds at which athletes race. Make the quality of the track more challenging. It’s not the 100 meters.
May God rest Mr. Kumaritshvili’s soul and offer as much peace as possible to his family in their grieving.
No one can say for sure that this accident could have been prevented, but one gets the feeling that it probably could have. Many lugers had less than satisfactory experiences with this course from the getgo. The IOC makes great pains in informing us about how they are checking athletes for doping infractions, but are they doing their due diligence to make sure that the participants are competing on safe venues.
My take is that if records are not broken then an athletic competition was not successful. The fact that a venue is safe is of little consequence.
Yes, the design could have been better. The metal supports should have been properly covered as a precaution. Safeguards are put in place for a reason. They are not implemented to protect one from a run of the mill incident, but to secure the safety of someone should something go unimaginably wrong. And in this case it did.
What really burns my butt is how quickly the IOC put the blame squarely on the back of the unfortunate luger. Can you say “pre-empt on a possible lawsuit”? Mr. Rogge’s speech on the sorrow he and the IOC feels rings so hollow. What he was really stating is that we don’t want to be sued. Mr. Rogge, it is time to man up.
If this incident had occured during a non-IOC sanctioned event, you could be sure that the sliding course would have been shut down until a proper investigation was completed. But with the IOC’s apparent autonomy, the show must go on. It’s bad enough that the IOC exploits the athletes for financial gain, but now it seems that they are more than willing to put these athletes’ lives on the line as well.
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“What really burns my butt is how quickly the IOC put the blame squarely on the back of the unfortunate luger. Can you say “pre-empt on a possible lawsuit”? Mr. Rogge’s speech on the sorrow he and the IOC feels rings so hollow. What he was really stating is that we don’t want to be sued. Mr. Rogge, it is time to man up.
If this incident had occured during a non-IOC sanctioned event, you could be sure that the sliding course would have been shut down until a proper investigation was completed. But with the IOC’s apparent autonomy, the show must go on. It’s bad enough that the IOC exploits the athletes for financial gain, but now it seems that they are more than willing to put these athletes’ lives on the line as well.”
This very well could be the comment of the Games on this particular issue. Well done. Superb.
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My condolences to friends and family of Nodar Kumaritshvili.
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What I found disturbing about this whole incident was that the track was not made for everyone.
By everyone, I mean that it seemed apparent the track was made for those elite lugers that were capable of setting human-missile records, and not those like young Nodar who was just trying to keep up with the Germans.
Although Nodar hit 144 km/h on that fateful turn 16, the fastest speed was “achieved” by another luger at 154 km/h. WOW! With nothing more than a helmet as protection. I’m pretty sure that helmet manufacturer would tell you the helmet would be useless at 144km/h into a metal beam.
To hear the rest of the lugers complaining the track too slow after the changes was I felt more upsetting then anything else. Apparently drugs in sport are not enough for those from Eastern Europe, they also like venues to be made so that no underdog could ever come from behind to win a medal, without risking their life in doing so.
To me, that attitude is a bigger shame than anything VANOC and the IOC did in building the track or in how they handled this tragedy.
Clearly, certain athletes didn’t want the competition to be fair, and you can tell who they were by looking at the results.
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Beautifully said. My sympathies to the family and team members.
As for the track… just goes with the theme of the entire event. IMO, this group of planners wanted Vancouver to be the biggest fastest most innovative crew ever to plan an event… Racers complained before the tragedy. The young man spoke to his Dad a day or so before the accident, he told his Father the track was too fast and he was afraid.
Who was not listening? That is my question.
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Great questions but hard to say at this point. We’ll have to wait for some follow-up.
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you answered a question that had been buzzing in my head.
Why did the poor lad’s helmet not save him?
It also explains why helmets have have not reduced motorcycle deaths.
Speed does kill.
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Yes, absolutely, He might have felt the impact but a torn aorta would have caused almost instantaneous death. By the time they were trying to revive him he was long gone.
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His helmet didn’t save him because he went into the post with his back. A sudden stop at approx. 125/130KPH and you have no chance of survival. He was torn apart internally.
Frankly, when I watched the practice the day before I said to my wife that there was no chance that I would EVER do that. Lying on your back at that speed you have absolutely no control.
Don’t understand the sport at all.
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Nor do I, frankly. you make some excellent points.
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