Georgian Luger Dies At Olympics
By Wyatt Earp | February 12, 2010
Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili
Damn.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – A men’s Olympic luger from the country of Georgia died Friday after a high-speed crash on a track that is the world’s fastest and has raised safety concerns among competitors. A tearful IOC president Jacques Rogge said the death hours before the opening ceremony “clearly casts a shadow over these games.”
Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled during training, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line at Whistler Sliding Center. Paramedics and doctors were unable to revive the 21-year-old luger, who died at a hospital, the International Olympic Committee said.
Not exactly the way Vancouver wanted to open the Games. There’s graphic video of the incident at the link, but I wouldn’t recommend watching it.
Kumaritashvili was only 21 years old. Please pray for his family.
Topics: Uncategorized | 11 Comments »
Sad story, but when you push the limits, bad things can happen… Thoughts and prayers for the family and the team. I hope they stay and compete for his memory.
Truly sad. One of the lugers said that she felt like the folks who designed this track are using the racers as crash-test dummies. There have been a lot of crashes, especially in that turn/corner.
I wish the folks on television would keep showing it. I have no desire to watch someone slam into a pole. I saw a picture of the paramedic working on him and the paramedic was bloody. That was enough for me.
His poor family.
What a horrible way to go. Let’s hope that despite the way it looks, he didn’t suffer much.
Saw the video. Bad crash. Question- who’s idea was it to put unprotected Princess Diana poles all along the track so guys could slam into them? No never saw that one coming.
Horrible crash. I thought the same thing CA. Why wouldn’t you protect those poles with some kind of screen. They protect poles at car and horse racing tracks.
I looked at the video and the photos of the medics working on him. Some were pretty graphic. I would guess he didn’t suffer. But I see no reason to make those photos public especially right after the incident.
Thank you so much for not including the video as part of your blog post. I have not been surprised that the networks have been showing it over and over again, but I have been surprised at the blogs and individuals on social networks that have been. I think it is incredibly disrespectful to this young man and his family to show his death and make them relive this horrific time in their life over and over again.
I’ve been sickened by the images all night. I wish I’d have realized they were going to show the poor guy dying when I turned on the news, I would have turned it off.
The Luge Federation president said tonight he thinks the track is too fast and is dangerous. I wonder what they’ll do to fix it.
Old NFO – I heard the Georgian team is staying to compete for him. Good call on their part.
RT – No reason for that space on the track to be open like that. No reason at all.
DL474 – I think it was pretty instantaneous. Hopefully he didn’t feel a thing.
Captain – Why have them there without at least some padding? Idiotic.
Ingineer66 – I kept thinking of the kid’s family. Who wants to see that?
Deanna – I agree 100%. I saw the video and the first thing I thought was that I wouldn’t post it here. I’ve seen a lot of violent things in my line of work, but this video shook me a little.
CP – I don’t think they have time to fix it for Vancouver. It has to be in the minds of all of the athletes when they are competing on that track.
“Luger” certainly looks weird in this context. But “lugiste” would look so fey, and then there would be jokes.
Has no one in the Olympics administration ever been to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Car racing had this crisis over 50 years ago, and dealt with it. Today it is safer than skiing.
I’ve spent some time at the US OTC. The squeaky-clean “muscle-powered sports” suffer from a certain righteous insularity. There are only 15 or so luge courses in the world; no one does it who is not hoping for an Olympic berth. You can’t pick this up on a sledding hill.
Comatus – No, you certainly don’t. I’m sure the athletes want it safe, but they probably want it fast. I wonder how many of them think the course in Vancouver is too dangerous?
Sorry, just realized I had a typo. I certainly do NOT wish that the news agencies would keep showing the video of the crash. They don’t need to show things like that…really.