Always half thought it was fairly safe, despite looking ridiculously dangerous. Sad to hear that. Has the Winter Olympics had many fatalaties down through the years?
Seen it before youtube took it down,absolutely stomach churning. The video link to CBS will easily upset so word of warning . http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6202969n&tag=related;photovideo
Death on luge track leads to questions about course, Canadian competitiveness Athletes feel like ‘lemmings’ thrown down ‘exceedingly dangerous’ course by Nancy Macdonald on Friday, February 12, 2010 4:21pm - 1 Comment A collective cry went out at the Main Media Centre this morning when video featuring the horrific crash of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili was broadcast into the hall. The 21-year-old racer died at the Whistler Sliding Centre — following his second crash in just two days. Ominously, even before the accident, questions about the “exceedingly dangerous,” 1,450-m-long course — the fastest on earth — were being raised. The top speed reached at the track at Fitzsimmon’s Creek, on Blackcomb Mountain is 153.93 km/h. Kumaritashvili was believed to have been travelling at 144.3 km/h. The track was built by Stantec Architecture Limited, who designed the Salt Lake City bobsleigh, luge and skeleton track in Utah; construction began in 2005 and wrapped up in 2007, when safety testing was begun.The international luge and bobsleigh federations both signed off on the track’s design and safety. But in training runs Thursday, both Guntis Rekis of Latvia and Stefan Hoehner of Germany had high-speed crashes. “My goals are to stay alive, not break bones and catch some good Whistler feeling,” Rekis told reporters. “I was scared a bit.” “I think they are pushing it a little too much,” Australia’s Hannah Campbell-Pegg said Thursday night after she nearly lost control in training. “To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we’re crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives.” “I’ve never slid that fast,” Maya Pedersen told Maclean’s at a World Cup event in February. “It’s a very difficult track,” said the 36-year-old, who won women’s skeleton gold for Switzerland at the 2006 Games. Canada may not only face criticism about the safety of the track. Questions will likely also be raised about Canada’s aggressive pursuit of the home ice advantage in Vancouver and Whistler. Earlier this week, Andy Schmid, the performance director of British Skeleton called the Canadian decision to limit practice time for overseas competitors (compared to the more than 300 runs set aside for Canadian athletes) as irresponsible. “Please, let there be no accidents there because that could kill the sport,” he told Britain’s Telegraph. “People have the argument that it’s just home advantage and that’s normal for an Olympic host country, but it’s different for sports involving high speed. Can you imagine in Formula One nobody being allowed on a track because somebody has home advantage?” Kumaritashvili’s death marks a terrible start to the Vancouver Olympics. No one yet knows how the crash will affect tonight’s Opening Ceremonies at BC Place, or the luge event, set to begin Saturday, with the men’s singles. Luge training at Whistler has been suspended. This isn’t the first time a competitor has died at the Games. At Lake Placid, Sergio Zardini, who was competing for Canada, died in a training run. At the 64 Innsbruck Games, Australian alpine skier Ross Milne and British luge slider Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski both died during training prior to the Games. In half an hour, International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge will address reporters. http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/02/12/...stions-about-course-canadian-competitiveness/
Yeah Ian think was close on 30 competitors disqualified. Fcuking joke! The english bird that won 2/3 gold medals last olympics cant think of her name (Coloured girl)was full of drugs imo. Alot at it still trying to cheat their waay to top.
Heard that they are gonna shortin the track so they cant get up to the dangerous speeds. IMO sky are a disgrace last night they showed the clip and then they showed it from another angle, then frezze frames in case you didn see it enough. Poor fecker
Anybody watch the ski cross tonight,what a sport,excellent stuff Canada play USA in ice hockey tonight 1240 am appparently loads of extra cops to police the fans incase of fights
Should be a good game, Canada should walk it, with Sidney Crosby being the star man, i'll say 6-4 Canada with a Crosby hat-trick!
Until I read the last few posts in this thread I had forgotten a little bit of a co-incidence. Four years ago I was flying to New Zealand and I booked the outbound flight from Dublin really early so that I could watch Liverpool v Man City (we won 1-0) it was on the same Sunday as the Ice Hockey Olympic final between Sweden and Finland. There was only one TV in the bar in the departures area of Terminal 2 Heathrow. All the Scandinavian flights went through that terminal. I never thought that trying to get a football game on the box would be so difficult. The bar man tried to please all by changing channels every 10 minutes.
All we all want to see is Canada v Russia.Sid the kid versus Alex the great.Canada struggled the last time out but should have too much for the americans.They needed a shootout to win the last time.Should be good anyway
If anyone is as bored like myself here's a link for the Canada USA hockey match should be a good one http://www.sportscoverage.co.cc/ch1.shtml
Day 12 Tuesday 2010-02-23 17:00 19:00 Women Heats 1 and 2 Day 13 Wednesday 2010-02-24 17:00 19:00 Women Heats 3 and 4 I hear they are refusing to compete until the track is gritted!!
Yeah, canada will have to go through a playoff now,. I was shocked watching the game, the Canadian fans were distraught!
Watched this myself first time seeing it, was brilliant to watch. Missed the snowboard cross, anyone know was that as good.