First Olympic Fatality in 46 years

[Asher]

Luger from Georgia...150km/h into a metal pole.

What a way to start the games. Right before the opening ceremonies.

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EDITED FOR DUMBASSES: PLEASE READ

I feel I should edit the post for the militant Pro-American non-Americans posting in this thread that this is NOT referring to the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing or Munich Massacre, NOR does it count all of the people who have died in car accidents on their way to Olympic venues or fat ****s who gorged on poutine and died of a heart attack in the stands.

The context is OLYMPIC SPORTING DEATHS.

If you wish to whine about this further, kindly **** off and do it elsewhere.
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[Wezil]

Does it count even if they haven't officially started yet?

The Globe has an *ouch* picture.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

[Asher]

The video's on YouTube. Looks like a rag doll.

[Theben]

Yahoo said 'hurt'. I guess that was a while ago.

[Asher]

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/skeleton/news/newsid=39315.html?cid=rsstgam

Georgian luger dead after training crash: AFP

Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was rushed to hospital after a life-threatening crash on Friday at the Whistler Sliding Centre during a training run.

German IOC official Thomas Bach confirmed the 21-year-old has died as a result of the crash, according to AFP.

Kumaritashvili was hurled off the track and knocked unconscious near the bottom of the track during his second of two runs.

He was clocked at 144.3 km/h before he hit one side of the wall, crashed into the other, and was thrown off his sled and over the wall. He appeared to hit a metal pole on the side of the track after he flew over the wall.

The accident occurred on the outrun of a turn named Thunderbird.

Track medical staff immediately rushed to the scene, administered CPR and rushed him to hospital in an air ambulance.

"I've never seen anything like that," said four-time Olympian Shiva Keshavan, of India. "I'm afraid it's bad."

Kumaritashvili is ranked No. 44 in the world.

Training was delayed after the accident and race officials say there will be a hold on the track until further notice.

Earlier Friday, reigning Olympic luge gold medallist Armin Zöggeler of Italy managed to walk away after crashing in his first run, but came back to complete a clean second run.

The two time Olympic champion and four-time medallist lost control in the lower section of his opening run, tearing down the track while holding on to his sled before coming to a halt. He stood up almost immediately after the crash.

Zöggeler was driven off in a medical vehicle, but returned for his second run.

There have been more than a dozen crashes during Olympic training. A Romanian woman was briefly knocked unconscious earlier this week.

"I think they are pushing it a little too much,'' Australia's Hannah Campbell-Pegg said Thursday 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.''

Luge competition begins on Saturday with men's singles.

[BlackCat]

Hitting anything with 144 km/h without protection must be not only painful but reasonably lethal

[Winston]

First Olympic Fatality in 46 years

That's right, the Munich Massacre never really happened.

[Asher]

First Olympic Fatality in 46 years

That's right, the Munich Massacre never really happened.

**** off, Winston, the context is obviously sporting fatalities.

[Drake Tungsten]

Let's all hope that Canada doesn't win any gold medals. I don't want this man's death to have been in vain.

[Ben Kenobi]

Winston +1.

[Asher]

I feel I should edit the post for the militant Pro-American non-Americans posting in this thread that this is NOT referring to the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing or Munich Massacre, NOR does it count all of the people who have died in car accidents on their way to Olympic venues or fat ****s who gorged on poutine and died of a heart attack in the stands.

The context is OLYMPIC SPORTING DEATHS.

If you wish to whine about this further, kindly **** off and do it elsewhere.

[Wezil]

Alright smarty pants.

Who was the last Olympic sporting fatality?

[Ben Kenobi]

I've lived in Canada longer than Asher has.

This is nothing compared with Munich.

[Snotty]

Luge always looked like a pretty dangerous sport to participate in. Youre hurtling down an icy slope at an hundred mph with skies strapped to your bum....

From the look of the pics there was no real way to make the track safe in its current configuration. I guess the only option is to make the safety rails even higher.

My thoughts to the family and friends....

[Wezil]

Luge always looked like a pretty dangerous sport to participate in. Youre hurtling down an icy slope at an hundred mph with skies strapped to your bum....

From the look of the pics there was no real way to make the track safe in its current configuration. I guess the only option is to make the safety rails even higher.

This story originally appeared in The Globe and Mail on Saturday, February 6, 2010.

What we have here is a veritable Citius Altius Fortius checkmate.

Canada will make its stand against the German medal machine in bobsleigh, luge and skeleton on a track that's hit the outer limits of sliding sports.

Early in the planning for the 2014 Sochi Games, the Russian hosts were told flatly by the sport's governing bodies: those speeds at the Whistler Sliding Centre? Don't even dream of trying to match them.

Think about that: how many sports have essentially stood up and said: Enough!

The sport has screamed Uncle, Onkel and Dyadya.

"In 30 years, who knows?" said Canadian luger Jeff Christie, a Vancouver native who represents the athletes. "But I know that the FIL [the governing body] has told tracks that in the future, 135ish [kilometres an hour] is about it."

But that won't be 'it' in Whistler.

The two fastest speeds in World Cup luge and bobsleigh history were recorded here last season. German luger Felix Loch hit 153.937 km/h. Janis Minins of Latvia became the first four-man bobsleigh driver to reach 153 km/h - more than five km/h better than the fastest time posted on the World Cup this year, on the natural ice surface at St. Moritz, a track with fewer perils than Whistler's.

Whistler's reputation was established in November, 2008 when Loch damaged shoulder tendons in a crash and was one of three lugers hospitalized, and Canadian bob driver Pierre Lueders crashed in Corner 7, which was instantly named Lueders' Loop.

Holcomb has since claimed that the course was designed backward, with tighter turns near the bottom where sleds max-out the speed. And American luger Tony Benshoof told NBC: "When I first got on this track, I thought that somebody was going to kill themselves."

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=39462.html?cid=rss