The death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was a result of the athlete losing control of his sled and not an unsafe track, the International Luge Federation said Friday night in a statement.
The men's singles luge competition will take place as scheduled at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, after the completion of two practice runs. The luge federation did say that open it would raise the walls at the exit of curve 16 and shave down the ice, altering the sliding lines.
"It appears after a routine run, the athlete came late out of curve 15 and did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into curve 16," the federation said in a statement. "This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem he eventually lost control of the sled resulting in the tragic accident. The technical officials of the FIL were able to retrace the path of the athlete and concluded there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track. "
Kumaritashvili was saluted with a minute of silence on Friday night near the end of the Opening Ceremony of the Games. He was clocked at 144.3 km/h heading into the final 270-degree turn of his training run when he hit one side of the wall, crashed into the other, and was hurled off the track and into a metal support pole. Georgia's Olympic team wore black armbands, hats and scarves and received a standing ovation from the fans at BC Place as they marched hours after the tragic accident. The seven-person team did one lap before exiting BC Place, where flags were at half staff for the duration of the ceremony.
February 13, 2010
Nodar Kumaritashvili Luge Crash Video
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4 comments:
Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death is a tragedy! Luge looks like such a neat sport, but also very dangerous at the same time. His death will cast a pall over these Olympic Games. The safety of the sport definitely needs to be addressed appropriately and immediately.
Why aren't there perspex barriers like you would have on an ice hockey court to keep people on the track until they stop?
His death really is a tragedy and I don't like the way the end of the video says I hope you enjoyed this video and suggests other videos. Kind of morbid if you ask me.
Get real people, if Kumaritashvili had died 3 weeks ago while training somewhere else, this barely gets a mention in the news. The only reason we heard about is because it happened on the day of start of the Olympics.
I'm not saying it's not a tragedy, but this was, afterall, an accident. Most of the winter sports have some element of danger namely because the equipment used in a lot of these sports propel bodies faster than they would naturally go. Not all accidents can be avoided, I'm glad that they let the luge continue on.
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