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Olympic Luger Dies During Training Run

pooky said:
Hardly. 120 km/h is about 72 mph. Not that it matters in this case...
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It was 148km/h which is 91mph. But yeah, it's really irrelevant. They did some changes to the track yesterday and luge has continued. The men now start from the women's position which will significantly reduce the speeds. They also increase the hight of the wall at the 50/50 turn.
 
Is this where I can be a cold (pun intended) bastard and say the typical "Why is luge a sport...? Ok, how about instead: why is luge an OLYMPIC sport?"

I know someone will rail against me for asking, but seriously...its a sled you ride and hopefully (as we have just seen) dont die by the time you reach the bottom. A little weight shifting here, a little tilt there, and thats the athleticism we reward!?
 
Sdashiki said:
Is this where I can be a cold (pun intended) bastard and say the typical "Why is luge a sport...? Ok, how about instead: why is luge an OLYMPIC sport?"

I know someone will rail against me for asking, but seriously...its a sled you ride and hopefully (as we have just seen) dont die by the time you reach the bottom. A little weight shifting here, a little tilt there, and thats the athleticism we reward!?
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Yes I think it is.

Is skiing just standing on two bits of wood falling down a hill?

Hurdles just jumping over a rail?

Football kicking a leather ball round a field?

Tennis hitting a ball over a net?

Running just walking faster?

To do any sport well takes skill. To be the best at anything only a select few can do so I admire people for giving it a try, whatever sport it is.
 
Tilpots said:
Shame on NBC for showing that video over and over.
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Yet another reason I wish some other network would out bid NBC for the next Olympics. As if having the stupidest commentators ever (babbling through the opening ceremony, way too many Master of the Obvious comments 🙄, an so on) ain't bad enough.
I've only seen the video once and that was on the news while eating. I couldn't eat a thing for 24 hours afterwards. I can't imagine people wanting to sit through countless videos of a man hurled to his death.😡
 
This anti-nbc stuff is getting really old. CTV, NBC, BBC all played the footage over and over. People are just finding reasons to hate NBC and it's really stupid. Get over it.
 
AndyR said:
Yes I think it is.

Is skiing just standing on two bits of wood falling down a hill?

Hurdles just jumping over a rail?

Football kicking a leather ball round a field?

Tennis hitting a ball over a net?

Running just walking faster?

To do any sport well takes skill. To be the best at anything only a select few can do so I admire people for giving it a try, whatever sport it is.
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You dont ride skies as you ride a luge.
Hurdles requires endurance and physical prowess to complete.
Football is alot more than the movement of the ball.
Tennis is alot more than the movement of the ball.
Running is a physical feat that can be quantified by rules.

Luge is riding a sled down a halfpipe and not flying off the track. I didnt say it wasnt a sport, I just dont get why its an OLYMPIC sport...seeing as how most people never see the damn event until the olympics.
 
Luge

First of all, regarding media showing images/video of the crash...

-If they make it down in record time, they broadcast it, right? Well that is one extreme. If they crash, they still show it. It is a risk of the game, a part of it.

Personally, I did not truly grasp or appreciate how fast and dangerous luge was until I saw that wreck. After I saw it, I immediately had a new-found respect for the athletes competing in that sport. I am glad they showed it. If you are unprepared or unwilling to see a terrible crash like that, then maybe you should not be watching luge? (RIP and best wishes)

Secondly, as for luge being a strange sport for the olympics...
It really is. So is bobsled.

Think about it. What if your kid said to you "I want to luge when I get older" or something, how do you respond? "I have no idea where to even find a luge track, sorry champ!"
Whereas if they tell you they want to figure skate you say ok, grab a pair of 20 dollar skates, finds a frozen pond, and set them out there.
 
NathanCH said:
This anti-nbc stuff is getting really old. CTV, NBC, BBC all played the footage over and over. People are just finding reasons to hate NBC and it's really stupid.
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The main reason I hate NBC having the Olympics is the stupid commentators. My IQ drops 20 point and my eyes begin to glaze over every time Bob "Master of the Obvious" Costa opens his mouth. The rest aren't much better. If they would just shut the h*ll up, the events would be so much more enjoyable. Every other network has semi-intelligent or at least entertaining commentators. NBC's commentators are so uptight you couldn't stick a greased BB up their @**.😛
So my message to the NBC exec: take your commentators behind the outhouse and put them down.
 
Mousse said:
The main reason I hate NBC having the Olympics is the stupid commentators. My IQ drops 20 point and my eyes begin to glaze over every time Bob "Master of the Obvious" Costa opens his mouth. The rest aren't much better. If they would just shut the h*ll up, the events would be so much more enjoyable. Every other network has semi-intelligent or at least entertaining commentators. NBC's commentators are so uptight you couldn't stick a greased BB up their @**.😛
So my message to the NBC exec: take your commentators behind the outhouse and put them down.
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SO TRUE. Hearing them "announce" the opening ceremonies was almost painful. It was like they took my brain, put it through a blender, then broadcast the half-retarded thoughts that everyone is already thinking for everyone to hear.

While they are at it, put down olbermann, matthews, schuster, and maddow too. Then pout down olbermann again. And again. Now, NBC may be able to produce something worth two *****s other than 30 rock 🙄
 
Mousse said:
The main reason I hate NBC having the Olympics is the stupid commentators. My IQ drops 20 point and my eyes begin to glaze over every time Bob "Master of the Obvious" Costa opens his mouth. The rest aren't much better. If they would just shut the h*ll up, the events would be so much more enjoyable. Every other network has semi-intelligent or at least entertaining commentators. NBC's commentators are so uptight you couldn't stick a greased BB up their @**.😛
So my message to the NBC exec: take your commentators behind the outhouse and put them down.
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No not everything they say is obvious. This is a world event, and more relevant, NBC is a US firm and broadcaster. Most US ppl (let along the world), know jack about that piece of ice above the USA.

Like WTF is going on with Wolverine and that stupid moon. New to me.
I didn't even know Canada had indians. I thought they were eskimos like Alaska.
And I still don't get that Peter Pan crap.

As for all those people who performed and appeared, I didn't even know who most of them are and I'm sure many ppl didn't either. Canadians and their life stories aren't that famous and "obvious" to the rest of the world, dude. Many people don't even know they have an army to fight in the war...let alone some poet discovered on YouTube.
 
NathanCH said:
This anti-nbc stuff is getting really old. CTV, NBC, BBC all played the footage over and over. People are just finding reasons to hate NBC and it's really stupid. Get over it.
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I may be wrong about this but I don't think the BBC played it all,it was shown late at night when the Beeb shows NBC news to fill up programming.It's possible BBC America has different policies.
 
Sdashiki said:
Luge is riding a sled down a halfpipe and not flying off the track. I didnt say it wasnt a sport, I just dont get why its an OLYMPIC sport...seeing as how most people never see the damn event until the olympics.
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Lots of Olympic events aren't mainstream sports. I never see anyone tossing a steel ball in the park myself. But kids on sleds in the street... 😛

I'm sure lugers however, would say that it's more than not flying off the track. You can steer that sled in various ways to round corners and go faster by precise movements. Just look at thier bodies. And at that speed, you know what happens when you make a grave mistake...

I actually rode one before in Calgary I think it was. Obviously it wasn't a full course since they didn't want tourists flying off the track but it was pretty scary nonetheless. 😱

Luge, like the skeleton and the bobsled, originated in the health-spa town of St Moritz, Switzerland, in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, through the endeavours of hotel entrepreneur Caspar Badrutt. Badrutt successfully sold the idea of winter resorting, as well as rooms with food, drink, and activities. His more adventurous English guests began adapting delivery boys' sleds for recreation, which led to collisions with pedestrians as they sped down the lanes and alleys of the village. This had two outcomes: in the short term the guests began to devise methods of steering the sleds, and so invented the skeleton (head first, prone), the luge (feet first, supine), and the two- and four-man bobsleighs. In the long term, in the interests of pedestrian safety, he built a thin special track for his guests' activities — the world's first "half-pipe", in about 1870. The track is still in use today; it has been used as a venue in two Olympiads, and is one of the few natural weather tracks that do not depend on artificial refrigeration. Its success eventually enabled Badrutt to build the Palace Hotel; he was able to retain the popular Krup Hotel, which catered for different clientèle and brought in competition as Alpine winter tourism increased in popularity.

The first organized meeting of the sport took place in 1883 in Switzerland. In 1913, the Internationale Schlittensportverband or International Sled Sports Federation was founded in Dresden, Germany. This body governed the sport until 1935, when it was incorporated in the Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing (FIBT, International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation). After it had been decided that luge would replace the sport of skeleton at the Olympic Games, the first World Championships in the sport were held in 1955 in Oslo (Norway). In 1957, the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL, International Luge Federation) was founded. Luge events were first included in the Olympic Winter Games in 1964.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luge
 
Sdashiki said:
Luge is riding a sled down a halfpipe and not flying off the track. I didnt say it wasnt a sport, I just dont get why its an OLYMPIC sport...seeing as how most people never see the damn event until the olympics.
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Some people say Indycar is just driving a car round in a circle, but I raced in Barber Dodge and Indy Lights on ovals in 2003/2004 and can categorically say there is nothing easy about it.

Anyway, getting off topic. Sorry.
 
rasmasyean said:
No not everything they say is obvious. This is a world event, and more relevant, NBC is a US firm and broadcaster. Most US ppl (let along the world), know jack about that piece of ice above the USA.

Like WTF is going on with Wolverine and that stupid moon. New to me.
I didn't even know Canada had indians. I thought they were eskimos like Alaska.
And I still don't get that Peter Pan crap.

As for all those people who performed and appeared, I didn't even know who most of them are and I'm sure many ppl didn't either. Canadians and their life stories aren't that famous and "obvious" to the rest of the world, dude. Many people don't even know they have an army to fight in the war...let alone some poet discovered on YouTube.
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What are you ranting about? At least make your arguments coherent.
 
InfoSecmgr said:
I see you, like most people here, are for censorship. This kind of video NEEDS to be shown to help avoid accidents in the future. I bet you don't let your kids use the Internet either.
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Censorship? C'mon man. It's called judgment, respect, and class. Bet you think Faces of Death should be shown smack dab in the middle of the weekend cartoon hours...

The people who NEED to see this video certainly will. The people who want to watch this video will also be able to view it. Censorship? Grow up.
 
InfoSecmgr said:
I see you, like most people here, are for censorship. This kind of video NEEDS to be shown to help avoid accidents in the future. I bet you don't let your kids use the Internet either.
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how does the video help to avoid accidents in the future? if you are into scare tactics..sure.

heres my take:

luge accidents happen, and somewhat frequently, its just extremely rare, almost unheard of, for the person to leave the track completely (due to the physics of the track) and the structure of some of the track (like overhangs etc). and its one of those situations that even you tried to re-create the accident for safety purposes or whatever reason, you would have a hard time doing. Its just a freak accident. Was it too fast? sure. Why were metal beams not covered? no clue, but I wouldnt go so far as to blame this person and blame that thing. There many things that came together.

one observation i'm seeing is Vancouver's weather is just plain awful, probably one of the worst conditions in a longggg time for an olympics. of course, I dont blame the city for that, but there are ramifications from that.

snowboard cross for example, everyone was falling because that "snow" was just horrid. (temps in upper 30s with rain and fog)...yuck.

I wouldn't be surprised if the ice and weather in this luge had some factor to play as well .
 
InfoSecmgr said:
I see you, like most people here, are for censorship. This kind of video NEEDS to be shown to help avoid accidents in the future. I bet you don't let your kids use the Internet either.
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First of all i don't have kids.😉

Second, I support the censorship of this video.

Why?: Imagine you died and imagine if your family would see the painful video of you dying! Wouldn't you think your family would be crying or have an emotional breakdown every time they see that video.🙄

Now put your shoes in the parents of the 21 year old luger who died, how would you feel when you see the video of your son die a painful death every time?🙄

Not trying to be tough, but you have to be realistic.
 
leomac08 said:
First of all i don't have kids.😉

Second, I support the censorship of this video.

Why?: Imagine you died and imagine if your family would see the painful video of you dying! Wouldn't you think your family would be crying or have an emotional breakdown every time they see that video.🙄

Now put your shoes in the parents of the 21 year old luger who died, how would you feel when you see the video of your son die a painful death every time?🙄

Not trying to be tough, but you have to be realistic.
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Are you talking about the online video? Or was NBC broadcasting it over and over again. Because the online video needs to be clicked and I thought I saw some "warning message" somewhere if I remeber. And it's people's demands who keeped boosting it to most pupular.

It's prolly a little overkill of them if they keep broadcasting the sceen where you see his mask get smacked off into pieces and whatever. But perhaps if they left that scene out of the broadcast, it should be fine. In the end it's really about ratings and they will only draw the line when it starts getting out of hand, though.
 
Just watched the video.. One of the most intense deaths I've ever seen.

**Caution for those who choose not to watch below, do not read my comments below this**








It was just so.. sudden. The noise made when he flew into the pole echoes in my head.
 
Abyssgh0st said:
Just watched the video.. One of the most intense deaths I've ever seen.

**Caution for those who choose not to watch below, do not read my comments below this**








It was just so.. sudden. The noise made when he flew into the pole echoes in my head.
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well i've seen some crazy videos online that make you throw up (iraq beheadings etc, hangings). I prefer not to watch those kind of videos due to the graphic nature and the disgust and vile nature of the devilish acts, but I saw this luge video...and it wasnt anything compared to those videos. If you told me the guy lived after the video..i would believe it. The problem was the video really didnt capture the speed he was going due to its location, but yeah those bars (and any future bars on a luge track) should and will be covered with protection.
 
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