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Olympic Luger Dies During Training Run

ucfgrad93

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Original poster
Aug 17, 2007
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FoxNews.com said:
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. 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. Doctors were unable to revive the 21-year-old luger, who died at a hospital, the International Olympic Committee said.
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http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/02/12/olympic-luger-seriously-injured-training/

Wow, this is so sad. The pictures are just horrific to see. Hopefully the Olympics will erect additional barriers and put padding around those steel poles.
 
:eek: Just had a look at that video and I actually feel a little sick. That poor poor chap.

All I can say is at least he was doing what he loved and had made it to the Olympics. At least he wouldn't have suffered I imagine. Would have been over very quick at those speeds.

God I really am shocked actually :(
 
that was horrific. I had seen it moments after it happened.

i'm not sure padded poles would have helped him. he was going about 120 MPH and came to a dead stop.

they do need to add more wall to the top as a number of players have crashed (not like him however). the lugers themselves are saying it's too dangerous and when they're saying it, it must be true b/c they are daredevilish.

so sad.....
 
Keebler, it was ~120 km/h. That's about 90 mph I believe. Still more than enough to kill a person. So sad...I do hope they put up a better fence there for the sake of the other competitors.
 
Absolutely shocking. The video is horrific. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to go out and do that on the same track after someone died doing it.
 
Tilpots said:
Shame on NBC for showing that video over and over. Think if it was an American they'd fo that?
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I saw it online, but it's sick that they would even have it available at all. :eek:

They used to do that when they were covering gymnastics meets. Show a bad fall that caused an injury over and over again. Disgusting.
 
mac2x said:
I saw it online, but it's sick that they would even have it available at all. :eek:

They used to do that when they were covering gymnastics meets. Show a bad fall that caused an injury over and over again. Disgusting.
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Injury is one thing. This is this guy's death. Shame shame shame.
 
mattwolfmatt said:
Injury is one thing. This is this guy's death. Shame shame shame.
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OTOH, I saw a good point made that complaints about the track's safety have been falling on deaf ears. Hopefully this could shock the "powers that be" into admitting that something's wrong.
 
Just saw it on some guy's private website (viewing is restricted in the UK).. really shocking. Like one of the above poster's said, they don't think padded poles would have helped him, and that's a fair point. It was only a matter of time, all luge tracks are build in the same way using metal scaffolds. And if you look at other luge accidents, you can see guys bouncing over the luge track and close to the metal constructs. Was only a matter of time until someone died by hitting one, and that's why this will causes a safety racket.

As usual,the danger's there for everyone to see, but no-one does anything until someone dies.
 
This is so sad. Not only for the athlete in question as well as his friends and family, but for the Olympic officials who were standing beside the track. I'd be shell shocked if I witnessed that.
 
leomac08 said:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/ass...ash+from+start


NBC took the violent video out already......it doesn't pop up. Glad they took it out in my opinion.
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It's prolly because word spreads and ppl keep hitting it loading up the servers. It kept appearing among the "most popular" not by NBC's doing.

I mean, even now, the other luger practice crashes are still "most popular". I don't imagine it was always so exciting seeng someone slip off a sled and just slide on ice for a bit.
 
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