You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/vancouver_2010/luge/8513595.stm
How could something like this happen should of hoped these tracks were safer.
Read that too, 21 yrs old -poor kid.
Extreme sports are dangerous it's a reality check bearing in mind mountain biking isn't always the safest sport
sad news but he died doing something he loved
Extreme sports are dangerous it's a reality check bearing in mind mountain biking isn't always the safest sport
agree to a point but there should never have been columns at the side of the track, particularly at the exit to a fast corner, so sad!
but he died doing something he loved
Why do people say that ?? Like it's gonna make him come back or smoething, He was 21 ffs
no it wont make him come back.
I think its a healthy thing to say.
Life is ALWAYS fatal, there are a million crap, miserable ways to die.
Dieing while taking the risk of doing something you want to do has to be better than some others that I can think of. At any age.
I think it's a cop out statement when people can't think of something better or more compassionate to say
its not a cop out. i mean it.
I have to wonder whether the restriction on use of the track to the Canadian team in advance of the games was a factor - would it have been less difficult for people to learn the track away from the pressure of the games? Some questions will be asked I reckon.
God, people argue about some tedious shit on here.
Only STW - a well meant comment of compassion over a young person's death gets turned into an argument inside two posts.
What plebish behaviour...
says the accident happend on a section not previously deemed dangerous.
;-( but I guess he went doing something he believed in and wanted to do.
Why did they have them posts at the side of the track like that.
90mph on a sledge :0
Bloody hell, what a shame. At least it would have been quick. The accident itself looks freakish. Isn't that the finish straight he's turning into when it happens?
just seen it on local tv (austria) its absolutly shocking!
i cant belive , poor guys family too xxx
Agree with jedi, our lives are fleeting why not go out giving it everything?
It was quite moving watching the IOC press conference, thoughts go out to all affected by it.
man that's crazy fast.
15mph faster average speed than other tracks sounds a little like bad planning...
Poor ****er. Feel for his team-mates too. only 7 of them....
Why was he able to hit a concrete post ffs. can't be difficult to put up padding or nets. Hardly looks like a 'freak' accident. 90mph on a tea tray, people ARE going to leave the track
no excuse, there should have been nets or padding
Theres a vid of the crash here:
http://www.techbanyan.com/9220/nodar-kumaritashvili-crash-video-graphic-warning-youtube/
http://www.techbanyan.com/9209/nodar-kumaritashvili-luge-youtube-video/
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT/NOT MEANT TO OFFEND
and the point of watching that footage is what?
vouyerism of the worst sort
suggest you get a life, like that poor kid just lost, and you are watching him lose it.....hmmmmm
cheers
tosser
+1 dasnut
Organic355 sick voyeur
+1 Dasnut from me too.
Good to see that there was a minute's silence at the opening, as well as a standing ovation for the Georgian team as they came in. Rogge looked visibly moved by it all as well.
I dont think Organic355 is a sick voyeur, he clearly states that it has graphic content and is not intended to offend, unfortunately one of the bi-products of a Democracy is you have a choice, in this case to watch or decline the offer.
In any case what a tragic incident and my condolences to all concerned.
I agree with jedi here.
It's a mega dangerous sport but I can totally see the appeal.
His family will miss him terribly, very sad.
I cant believe they dont have padding on those pillars.
Why all the holier-than-thou criticisms of organic355?
If an incident is significant, why should people not want to see it? People are interested in sport, they're interested in crashes, but as soon as someone loses a life, photo/video relating to this is supposed to be ignored?
Why? Will this sportsman's life be restored if no-one watches the video? Of course not.
Do you assume that everyone who watches a video like this is rubbing their thighs with glee at the horror? Or maybe people just want to know more about an incident they've read about?
anokdale is right. You may feel it inappropriate to watch the video. So don't watch it. But don't lecture people who view it differently to you. You're not saving anyone's life or sparing anyone's suffering - you're just telling others what to do.
A very sad event - a sportsperson losing his life doing what he loved.
(On a related note - Maybe if TV news reporting was more open when reporting on traffic incidents or war events, people would realise the consequences of our collective actions and fewer people would die. But the sanctimony of the masses holds that 'tasteful' TV viewing is more important than people being honestly shown the horrors of the world.)
did you hear the commentator explaining things : from the floor to the green line was only 2ft then straight after that was those horrid railings ??? i mean c,mon its not rocket science , anyone can see thats dangerous ...why build it like that....its outrageous and now the price has been paid for someone to loose there life.... just terrible...
All sorts of follow up actions on this one i fear and i suspect there is abundance of padding everywhere now. Tragic.
The papers in Canada and the US are saying that he made a mistake a corner or so back that he didn't correct in time and this was the result. Look at any track based sport; they mitigate the accidents you're more likely to have, not the one in a million accidents.
Even other competitors have said that they were surprised he crashed there. Added to that, apparently he crashed earlier and was visibly nervous on all his runs. To my mind, the question is why they let him run at all if he was struggling.
Good news is he'll be able to enter the skeleton next year......
(sorry, sick joke I know but we have a dark sense of humour in A&E)
Aahh good one doc....Having watched the vid, it would appear that it was indeed an freak accident in terms of regular type crashes in this sport. Those posts were probably of no major concern before now, but i guess this changes things a little, or alot...
As said above, if you consider that kind of vid offensive then don't watch it, for me it's a case of seeing what actually happened and in no way is it some kind of sick turn on 😕
vouyerism of the worst sort
Not even remotely, simply examining the evidence as it were..Death is never nice really but will come to us all some day..I guess i would like to go doing something i loved doing if my time comes early, those final few moments of the thrill have got to be better than something drawn out and ever looming.
Not really sure if that gets my point across but hey ho.
Uh, Kumaritashvili hit a metal beam at 145 km/h.
Hitting a padded beam at 145 km/h wouldn't have made one bit of difference to the poor guy.
That said, why are there ANY beams exposed?
And I find it incredible that they're actually going ahead with the luge today, even if it is from the women's start.
I'm not, I think if I were a competitor I would want to go ahead and if I die on my bike tomorrow please don't stop riding because of it which I imagine is the sentiment of many people.
It's a dangerous sport and all involved will know this, it may even form part of the reason that they do it.
That's what I mean.
I find it incredible they can muster the courage to go out on a "killer" track and compete.
More balls than I've ever had (which is why they're at the Olympcis and I'm sitting at a computer).
Well they're now racing - they've covered the exit towards the beams with boards so you can't come out of the track that way (also speeds are less with a lower start, though still faster than any other track). The thing is, watching one of the early runners who is supposedly very experienced, he made a mess of the last bend in a way that if he hadn't corrected it you could see him having similar problems - the difference being he was able to correct and save it.
The American that just ran hit the woodwork on the top of turn 16. Commentary was that now they've moved the start further down, all the corners are taken at a different speed to what they've been practising 😯
I know they've lowered the start point, but it still looks hellish fast.
American chap nearly lost it there, looked like he clipped the top of the big right hander.
Balls of steel, all of 'em.
Aye, still rapid as, but a speed they wouldn't normally take it at meaning they're going to make mistakes.
Muchos respect
These are sportsmen at the top of their game fighting for the 'ultimate' title. It will be dangerous.
Basically (maybe a bad turn of phrase) this whole event is staged to sort the men from the boys. Condolences where they are due, no-one wanted this to happen and lets hope there are no more major incidents at the games.
At 90mph with virtually no protection how much run-off would be needed? I came off my m-bike at 40 and went far enough.
Basically (maybe a bad turn of phrase) this whole event is staged to sort the men from the boys.
Not really it's not - of course it takes a lot of bottle, but from a competitive point of view it's not about surviving, it's about getting the lines right. Making a mistake and coming off should result in bruises, nothing more than that.
At 90mph with virtually no protection how much run-off would be needed?
Downhill skiers go that fast and in some places there isn't much run off before the catch fences. A couple of people have died in that in the last 20 years, but then they crash spectacularly rather more often than lugers, and one of those was hitting somebody else on the slope during a training run - the last death due to hitting something solid was in 1994, since when there have been huge numbers of people saved by the fences.
His death is very sad indeed. Echo Jedi's comments about dying doing something he loved though. If you've got to go (as we all have!), far better that it was doing something he loved.
The comments made against the person who posted the link to the video... WTF are you guys on? The video is shocking indeed, pretty gut wrenching to be fair, but so much better that something can be learned from watching it and measures taken to make sure it can't happen again surely?
Again though, how the hell were ANY exposed hazards that could potentially kill allowed to get through in the first place. Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, but surely someone must have looked at that and said "these guys are doing 90mph coming down here, that's an exposed hazard that would stop them instantly resulting in pretty much certain death, perhaps we should cover it over?"??? 🙄
I don't think padding would've made any difference. He died, tragically, doing what he wanted to do. It's almost like having a heart attack during a BJ, fatal but quick.
I don't think padding would've made any difference.
But nobody with any sense is suggesting padding. Simply what they have done subsequently - putting up boards to stop them leaving the track. If the track had been like it is now he'd almost certainly have survived - maybe even be taking part in the competition.
I watched it because I wanted to see how it happened. It's a horrible crash and it's no wonder he's dead given his high speed backward flight into the pillar - he had no chance.
Don't know much about the sport, but those rows of pillars look lethal. I realise they shouldn't sanitise extreme sports but to me the design of the track looks more dangerous than it needs to be. Either the walls should keep you in, or the area around should be free from collision hazards IMO
Poor bloke 🙁
Indeed, on a course like that in a fully man-made environment, such exits should be controlled. I'm all for raw sport and not sanitising sports that have danger, but leaving the track should be impossible, and if not impossible should be made reasonably safe. At least in sports like F1 your car is a safety cage and the track design is secondary. In this sport there is no safety cage, the track design should be much safer.