Tragic Olympic Accident - Page 6

On February 13 2010 18:20 Eskii wrote:
Here is the thing, it was completely foreseeable... I don't know why people are shocked when athletes who perform in high risk sports die in accidents.

Joint VANOC - FIL Statement on Men’s Luge Competition

Feb 12, 2010

The International Luge Federation is deeply saddened by the death of the Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili, member of our Luge Family, who was fatally injured during the final training session in the last corner of the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Friday morning.

The Coroners Service of British Columbia, responsible for the investigation of all sudden deaths, together with the RCMP, concluded their on-scene investigations on the track and transferred the decision to FIL when the track can be re-opened. The FIL, through its technical officials, further investigated into the cause of this tragic incident. Based on a physical inspection of the track and a thorough review of the tapes they have concluded the following:

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. 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.

Based on these findings the race director, in consultation with the FIL, made the decision to reopen the track following a raising of the walls at the exit of curve 16 and a change in the ice profile. This was done as a preventative measure, in order to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again.

The FIL will resume men´s training Saturday morning with two full training runs prior to the competition taking place as scheduled at 17h00.



FIL and VANOC will conduct a joint press conference on Saturday, 13 February, at 8h30am at the Whistler Media Center with Josef Fendt, FIL President, Svein Romstad, FIL Secretary General and Tim Gayda, VANOC Vice-President, Sport. Media in Vancouver will be able to follow the press conference and post questions at the Main Press Center (MPC).

On February 14 2010 02:39 SultanVinegar wrote:
"Officials have modified the last turn where he crashed, erecting a 12-foot-high wooden wall to cover the exposed steel beams. In the last hour before practice was set to resume, workers scraped and shaped ice from the edges in the last turn. Officials said they have modified the exit in the curve."

from espn
http://sports.espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/luge/news/story?id=4911258

On February 13 2010 15:06 Sadistx wrote:
Was his sled made by Toyota?

On February 14 2010 08:09 Bosu wrote:
A pad wouldn't do anything other then shut up the hundreds of thousands of people that think a steel pad would have helped.

WHISTLER, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The Olympic men’s luge competition will run from the lower women’s start as an extra precaution after the death of a Georgian slider in training, organisers said on Saturday.

On February 14 2010 09:11 AtlaS wrote:
i feel fucking sick after seeing that picture of the luger covered in blood with his lifeless eyes staring lifelessly into the sky. I keep seeing my own face instead of his.

i just got into a snowboarding accident on tuesday and i feel like i just cheated death. i was following a friend down a trail that I wasn't very familiar with nor am I as good of a snowboarder as my friend and I didn't see this ski lift pole with a giant concrete block on the bottom of it until it was too late and I hit it head on.

i broke every bone on the right side of my face including the frontal bone in my forehead that is supposed to take 200Gs of acceleration to break. the orbital bone that holds my eye was completely shattered and they had to cut the top of my scalp from ear to ear and literally peel my face back in order to insert 10 titanium plates in order to piece my face back together.

If I would've hit the block two inches higher, I would've been blind. If I would've hit the concrete block two inches lower, I would've been paralyzed. If the back of my head would've hit the concrete block, I would've have been brain dead. If my I hit two inches upper-right in my temple, I would've died on impact. The sheer fact that I had my sinuses to act as a buffer is the sole reason I am not worse off than I am now. I'm going to be most likely partially blind in my right eye and my face slightly misshapen, but nothing even close to what could have happened.

I'm fucking shook up and sick to my stomach after seeing this. I've never been this close to an encounter with death and I can't believe that I escaped death within inches of my life. It's fucking sickening to think that my life could have ended on tuesday. Never knew how much I took it for granted until I almost lost it.


Rest in Peace, Nodar Kumaritashvili.