4 hours before Olympics start - Already 1 death

You guys hear about this? Honestly I can't believe CTV put this on their website...

Video on the right
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/

Article
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/luge/news/newsid=39315.html#georgian+luger+dead+after+training+crash

So terrible... RIP

My God, that should so be taken off the site. The last moments of a 21 year old life and a violent death.

RIP son.

Very sad start to the Winter Games, I was shocked when I heard the news!!


Edit: I just saw the footage and I couldnt believe my eyes! They really need to remove that video from public eyes. I know during the investigation it will be viewed. My heart truly goes out to his family!



RIP man!

What has been seen cannot be unseen. That was horrible. Why would they have a bunch of unpadded pillars at the end of a course?

Good for him for doing what he loved, especially something that requires such bravery! That guy had some big brass ones for sure. RIP

I am living full time in Whistler, and an employee of the Olympic Comittee during the games time and I can attest that there is a very somber pall hanging over what should be a total celebration going on right now.

Man, what a tragic lost . RIP, prayers and condelences for his Family and friends.

But i agree with Jeff, how come there's no padding. Or better yet, have a bunch of safety net for the open spaces on the course?

I suppose they assumed that no luger would lose control of their sled at that point. Exposed steel pillars = epic fail. The IOC should have to answer for this but probably won't. Pricks.

This is such a horrible tragedy.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family.

That's just unforgivable!!!

Why would they make this footage public!? It's too graphic!

I mean if they were showing the practice runs LIVE then they can't take it back, but having the video up for everyone to see on CTV's website??? For the family and friends of this poor young man to see???

Rest in peace.

Yea this was horrible. How ever I just saw this on OLN. It did not need to be shown on TV like that.

It's not very apparent in the video, but more apparent in real life, I have been to that track numerous times, and will have hopefully have the oppertunity to slide there after the olympics are over, the walls create quite a deep trough, and where the slider went off the track is NOT a technically hard section.
All sliders when they fall 99.99% of the time end up just sliding along the base of the track, since the majority of the time you are pressed into te ice surface at somewhere between 2-6G's. Netting is not an option due to the entanglement hazard, as well as it would make it impossible to do track prepararation. What will probably be done in this area is a lexan extension coming up off the wall which is installed on other area's of the track, in the more technical area's
Padding would have not have worked, there are just too many poles to protect, as well as at 140kph padded vs unpadded wont make too much of an impact.
The IOC does not have any input over the design of the track, this track has already had upwards of 10,000 passes down it, both in practice and in World Cup competition, gaining a reputation both as the fastest track in the world, but as a technically challenging track as well. Assigning blame at this point is pointless, but at this point in time discussion points to a pilot who unfortunately didn't really have the experience on difficult tracks, the comparison I have heard made in relation was he was a AAA player who got dropped into the NHL right before the stanley cup because someone had room on the team. Pilot error and inexperience is pretty much the rumored cause in this case.
Just to put in context how safe they believed this track to be, is that every 5th grade student in the Whistler area as part of a "olympic experience" project was invited to come and experience luge and hundred's of children attended with the worst injury a sprained finger. These kids did 3 runs each starting frther and further up the track, and most were finishing with speeds at up to 90+ kph

Tim, are you doing any work at the Olympics this year?

In my opinion those steel pillars have no business being so close to the track or vice versa. Like you said Tim, he was going 140k/hr and according to the video he was airborne coming out of the tunnel. Your analysis that he was inexperienced on difficult tracks doesn't wash with me seeing that this is the *Olympics* after all. Apart from drinking beer, the other great Canadian past time is passing the buck, isn't it Tim?

The steel beams are there because of structure, granted! So we going to have to look past the beams and look at why safety wasnt on top of the list knowing how it was structured. The Olympic committee or whomever deals with safety should have foreseen such a possibilty of an athletic going of track due to the new speeds being reached coming out of a turn. They should have had a net or better yet plexiglass going like 10 feet up for a just in case reason.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

You can never protect 100%. Unexpected will always happen and you can't plan for the unexpected.

How many of you have been lapping at DDT, TMP, Shannonville without a 5-pt. harness or roll bar?

People participate in sports that have risks and they accept those risks.

Why isn't everybody calling for Dodge to put roll bars in the pick-up trucks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGTrnV18Mbo

I am an employee of VANOC, I am on the front lines and I will explain this as best as I can, and hopefully I can shed some light on how an inexperienced slider can "make" it to the Olympics. A country is allotted a certain number of slots to bring atheletes to the sport. I will use skiing as an example, since it is what I am working with full time. Countries are alloted a certain number of spots with how they are doing on the World Cup, in the case of skiing the last World Cup was the last weekend in January, and it was after that event that the Canadian Team was set. Individuals earn FIS points for individual results as well as there are team FIS points as well.
A person can earn FIS points both in World Cup, and in Regional contests. Teams coming Vancuver 2010 were just given a nmber of "spots' Canada as a host nation was actually given a bonus slots for athletes. The only qualifying state was a certain number of FIS points, not how they earned.
In the case of the Georgian athelete, he had only raced in 5 World Cup events (all in Europe where the tracks are older, less challenging and slower) in his career, and has apparently never raced at either of the North American tracks (Lake Placid and Whistler) and at the point of the training camps in the summer was not brought to Whistler as part of the Georgian team.

Those steel beams as well are there 100% down the entire length every 9ft down a track length of 4657ft. A wall has been been built overnight to enclose that area, and the ice coming out of the corner where he had issues has been reprofiled.
Here is the press release that just came out
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.


Also VANOC, and the IOC is NOT responsible in full track preparation and approval, this falls under the International Bobsleigh Federation which took over the track in the fall and was responsible for putting in the ice, profiling the ice, and giving the track the final approval.