Georgian luger taken to Whistler hospital after terrifying crash on track

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Georgian luger taken to Whistler hospital after terrifying crash on track
Terry Bell, Canwest News Service: Friday, February 12, 2010 2:30 PM

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/41524/1d/www.globalnational.com/Georgian%20luger%20taken%20Whistler%20hospital%20after%20terrifying%20crash%20track/2556532/2556537.bin?size=sw380nws

Luge participant Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia trains at the Whistler Sliding Centre Wednesday. His sled apparently flew off the track during training Friday.
Photo Credit: Peter J. Thompson, Canwest

Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili is en route to Whistler Hospital after a terrifying crash moments ago at Whistler Olympic Park.

Kumaritashvili was going close to 150 km/h, near the end of the course, when he launched off the track. Witnesses say his body hit a metal pole. CPR was performed almost immediately and an ambulance rushed Kumaritashvili from Whistler Olympic Park.

Canwest Olympic Team's Terry Bell has been told that Kumaritashvili hit his head on a metal pole as he flew off the track. Medical personnel performed CPR through a plastic tube.

"It does not look good," says Bell.

Kumaritashvili turned 21 in November. He has competed in luge for Georgia since 2008.

Earlier Friday during training, one of the event favourites got a scare. The 2002 and 2006 gold medallist Armin Zoeggler of Italy crashed rounding corner 11.

Zoeggler slid about 200 metres while holding his sled with one hand to keep from being hit with it. Zoeggler recovered from his crash and took his second run in a fast 47.9 to put him near the top of the training times.

On Wednesday there were several crashes during women's luge training runs.

Romania's Violeta Stramaturaru crashed and was knocked unconscious for a few minutes and was taken to the hospital.

Zoeggler recovered from his crash and took his second run in a fast 47.9 to put him near the top of the training times.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 12 • Views: 6,934 • Replies: 51

[+4] - farmerman - 02/12/2010Luge and skeleton are two events that have no safety protocols in track design. There are too many metal and concrete "things" that intrude into a lugers trajectory should the athlete...

@djjd62,

That is tough to even read.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Luge and skeleton are two events that have no safety protocols in track design. There are too many metal and concrete "things" that intrude into a lugers trajectory should the athlete lose it. Theres a lot of athletes being launched out of the track at some of the incredible speeds they can attain. 90 mph is way too fast if we accept that accidents can happen , so the tracks need to be better netted and designed for safety. The tracks keep getting some tighter g turns and acceleration straits.

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@djjd62,

from Global News twitter feed
GlobalNational
The IOC has confirmed Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili has died after a horrific crash during a training run.

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He has been listed as dead and in serious condition. I wonder which one it is. Of course i am hoping for alive.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/2010wintergames/sports/2010wintergames/Georgian+Olympic+luge+competitor+dies+crash+reports/2556930/story.html

http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/2010wintergames/sports/2010wintergames/2556861.bin

1 Reply

http://www.globalnational.com/Georgian%20luger%20dies%20after%20horrifying%20crash%20Whistler%20track/2556532/story.html

Georgian luger dies after horrifying crash at Whistler track
Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili has died after launching from the track and hitting his head on a metal pole during a training run Friday at Whistler Olympic Park, the IOC has confirmed.

International Olympic Committee Vice-president Thomas Bach confirmed just after noon Friday that Kumaritashvill died after the crash.

The luge track is closed. Coaches of the national teams are in meetings with FIL, the international luge federation. The training run has been cancelled.

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@Seed,

Gah... so that picture is of him in the process of dying?

1 Reply

@sozobe,

I guess so

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@djjd62,

Poor track design. Why are there metal poles mere feet away from the track at a low point in the wall just after a curve? Come on, what where they thinking. A very sad occurrence and an embarrassment for the builders of the venue.

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

Thats the damn standard, in that there are really no standards for safety. If you look, even the ski jumps and downhill have safety courses with nets and ****. The kuge, skeleton, and the bobsleds use about the same types of tracks and Id seen these from the pix in the ads for the Olympics. We were watching some program several months ago when they were finishing these tracks. Too much metal work and cement Quaoins and **** sticking out.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

I guess it seems pretty obvious now. But they should have anticipated these design risks and implemented more reasonable standards before this happened.

I heard that only days ago one of the other contestants complained about the risks and said that these olympic runs just treaded them like "test lemmings".

1 Reply

@rosborne979,

Betcha youll see some nets going up at high speed curves and high g spots. Its gonna be too late to hide the fact that theyre there for saftety concerns

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

Betcha youll see some nets going up at high speed curves and high g spots.

I agree. And I bet they put a higher wall on that section of track within a day. We'll see.

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They are discussing raising the wall two or three feet, according to CBC.

What has just appalled me is the report i just heard on CBC, in which protesters against the Olympics (there's a lot of those jokers) were saying, in effect, people are dying within a few miles of us for a lack of public services, and you expect us to worry about some Olympic athlete? Oh yeah, they're doin' their cause a lot of good.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

I read somewhere that the steel post (pole, girder - I've read all three) wasn't cushioned at all, which, in hindsight, seems an obvious thing to do. I'm not sure how obvious - if at all - since I can't picture the set up.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

I finally watched the video - there are a lot of those posts/columns.

1 Reply

he was going about 95 miles an hour when he crashed

1 Reply

Quote:

Competition-related deaths in Olympic history A horrific crash during luge training on Feb. 12, 2010 claimed the life of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, an athlete from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

According to Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, there have been no athlete deaths during official Winter Olympics competition. There have been two in Summer Olympics competition.

1912 Summer Olympics - Stockholm
Portuguese runner Francisco Lazaro was the first athlete to die in modern Olympic competition, when he suffered a heart attack while running the marathon. He was 21.

1960 Summer Olympics - Rome
Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen collapsed during his race under the influence of drugs and later died in hospital. He was 23.

1964 Winter Olympics - Innsbruck, Austria
Polish-born British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki was killed on a trial run on the Olympic course at Igls two weeks before the start of the Games.

The Games' downhill competition was also marred by the death of 19-year-old Australian Ross Milne, who died on a practice run after flying off the course and hitting a tree.

Weather conditions were cited as factors in both tragedies.

1988 Winter Olympics - Calgary, Canada
Austria's leading orthopaedic surgeon and Olympic team doctor, Joerg Oberhammer died on the slopes when he collided with a skier and fell beneath a snow grooming machine, dying instantly.

1992 Winter Olympics - Albertville, France
Swiss skier Nicholas Bochatay crashed into a snow-grooming machine on a public trail while training in the closing days of the Games and died.

2010 Winter Olympics - Vancouver
Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a training crash, which saw him thrown off his sled as it bounced over the rim of the track at around 90mph and slammed into a pole by the side of the course. He was 21

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=412267.html

wow, this does not happen very often. Day one and Canada is already half way home to putting on a sucky Olympics games.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

Quote:

IOC president Jacques Rogge was non-committal on what would happen next with the luge, although the IOC promised a later press conference. “It’s a time of sorrow,” Rogge said. “It’s not a time to look for reasons.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=dw-lugedeath021210&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Considering how many people and runs are scheduled to go down that track....Bullshit!

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@ossobuco,

This is from afar. The video I saw, probably on Huffpo but widely available, shows many steel columns, unpadded as if that would make a difference but maybe it would, I don't know. Then we have an 'engineered' course with long paths with difficult forces at high speed.

I'm not very interested in casting blame - I'm sort of a design petunia in that I'm always the first one to point out trouble on a property, possibly from my own story from way back when. I've been amazed about skate parks, liability wise, so I'm conservative on all this.

On the other hand, one of my favorite designers is the head guy at an engineering firm, Arup, that has worked out some exciting structures.

I'm interested in the way this luge track came to pass, the process of it being ok to go. Guessing stress to get it approved.

0 Replies

Georgian luger taken to Whistler hospital after terrifying crash on track

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