Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili dies after crash

ssaye

http://news.google.ie/news?hl=en&source=hp&q=Nodar%20Kumaritashvili&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/8513595.stm

RIP

robinph

And on the day of the opening of the games. Was just watching a thing on Eurosport where they were saying that the track was the fastest and most dangerous built yet.

RIP

ssaye

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/feb/12/georgian-luge-competitor-killed


"The Whistler Sliding Centre is regarded as the fastest in the world and earlier today, several of the competitors had crashed in training, including gold medal favourite Armin Zoeggeler of Italy.
On Thursday, a Romanian woman competitor was also briefly knocked unconscious.
"

Seems the new design is ridiculously dangerous.

RIP

Grim.

R.I.P

gavkm27

Vibes going out to the Family and the rest of the Georgian team

hk797

RIP

Watched footage on CNN just now - tragic.

Jesus....:(

robinph

They were just talking about it on the Beeb and how it had been turn 13 they considered the dangerous one, not turn 16. Also they reckoned that there being 3% of runs ending in crashes was not unusual on a new track.

They will have to change something about those posts though.

df1985

on a lighter note, canada is putting on a good show with the opening ceremony now on bbc2 and eurosport.im sure this has cast a shadow though!

EDIT:something is fecked with bbc's sound. a delay on the sound but not the picture.go with eurosport!

eddie the eagle

i read in one report that he appeared very nervous in his decents. probably due to the fact that he crashed on his second attempt of his six runs. they guy reporting was saying that he kept lifting his head as he was decending. poor fcuker tho. id say he was nervous as hell especially after crashing earlier. sounds like one hell of a track. stupid tho that them poles were there. an accident waiting to happen it seems. RIP

Poly

Jesus, that's awfull, Why didn't they have netting there to catch him? like in downhill

robinph

They are going ahead with the Luge. There will be an extra two training runs and they are raising the barriers at the side of the track on turn 16. They are also changing the "ice profile" which I think probably means they are slowing the track down a touch.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/luge/8513794.stm

gavkm27

I'm in Whistler and they showed his death on the news right after the opening ceremony,very distasteful if you ask me
they are up against it here,they lost the feed for 20 mins on the big screens here in the village,also the end of the ceremony did'nt work out so good.
And the mens downhill has been postponed due to slushy conditions,more rain in the forecast,and thats in Whistler,Cypress is a whole other story! they had to pick an El Nino year!

robinph

Most of the videos are being removed pretty sharpish from the likes of YouTube, but the video I did see didn't actually show a whole lot. There was a fairly bad looking still photo though of him hitting the post. Doesn't matter if they show it on the news or not though, people know where to find the stuff these days and will go see it anyway regardless out of curiosity.

The still I saw seemed to show that he was only just over the top of the extended height section of the track where it came back down to regular height of the track, so possibly they just didn't account for the speed that they would be travelling there and how far they woud go if they did crash. Hope they do have the track wall properly extended ready for this evenings runs and strong enough.

Fattes

RIP This is whey we respect these guys so much travelling at over 100 kph with nothing but a couple of mm of Lycra between you and eternity!

Tragic and thoughts are with his family and team mates

colblimp

robinph wrote: »

They are going ahead with the Luge.

Which in my opinion shows a total lack of respect for the deceased athlete, his family and the Georgian federation. I know they're going to make changes to the track, but it's too little, too late.

pulpfictionost

Oh my God, the accident was horrific. All his hard work, his entire life ended so fast. My heart goes out to this hard working athlete.

It angers me alot though that a simple Plastic Barrier could not have been in place to prevent exiting the track, needless loss of human life.

robinph

colblimp wrote: »

Which in my opinion shows a total lack of respect for the deceased athlete, his family and the Georgian federation. I know they're going to make changes to the track, but it's too little, too late.

There was another Georgian competitor who dropped out, and a couple of others who have as well.

kmart6

Only just saw the video there, and to be honest the pictures look a lot worse in my opinion!!

colblimp

kmart6 wrote: »

Only just saw the video there, and to be honest the pictures look a lot worse in my opinion!!

But the speed at which he hit the metal post was just horrendous. If you listen carefully, you can hear the noise when he hits it. I'm not sure if he knew anything about it because he didn't move at all once he hit.

Gone Drinking

I don't know much about the sport, but in my opinion, it shouldn't be possible for the rider to leave the track. Clear plastic barriers, like in ice hockey should be in place.

A very sad and needless loss of life.

robinph

Kumaritashvili told father he was afraid of luge track

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/luge/8517281.stm