The Luge/Bobsled Track at the Vancouver Olympics is Beyond Dangerous - It's Deadly...

[Junkdrawer]

I case you haven't heard, a 21 yr. old athlete died today in a luge "accident".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oly_lug_luge_crash

There needs to be an investigation. Because it looks to this observer that the people who designed the track at Whistler built-in crashes - all to increase prestige and ratings.

Consider this from Sports Illustrated 2 days ago:

...

To add to the speed and violence, the course in Whistler is far and away the fastest one in the world, thanks in part to a steep top section that includes a 20-degree drop at curve two. Curve 13 was dubbed the "50/50 curve" after a day of course testing last year when only half the teams made it through right side up. If you're the type who watches NASCAR secretly anxious to see a crash, this might be the year for you to check out bobsled.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/david_epstein/02/09/bobsled.preview/index.html#ixzz0fMK4Fpkd

And the athletes, the people who love this sport, have been complaining....

...

Kumaritashvili’s tragic accident is only the last in the past few days at Whistler, which was hyped as having the fastest luge track in the world. Gold medal favorite Armin Zoeggeler of Italy was among those who wiped out, along with a Romanian woman who was knocked unconscious and four Americans.

Australia’s Hannah Campbell-Pegg had this to say after she nearly crashed on Thursday night:

I think they are pushing it a little too much. 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.

Unfortunately, Campell-Pegg played the role of Cassandra in this tragedy. Indeed, her comments show how obviously dangerous this track was to any and all observers, and how easily preventable today’s events were.

...

http://www.sbnation.com/2010/2/12/1308122/luge-crash-nodar-kumaritashvili-died-winter-olympics-reaction

The luge first runs are scheduled for tomorrow. Something beyond cosmetics needs to be done.

[KittyWampus]

1. How do you walk away from a luge and say it's too dangerous? As an athlete

representing your country, it's a chance of a lifetime.

Like Rome with gladiators.

I have serious problems w/ the Olympics to start with.

The amount of money the hosting city keeps rising. Costs always go over. What is recouped never meets expectations.

[Junkdrawer]

7. Clearly severe accidents weren't enough. Now we'll see if death is enough...

to stop the madness.

[Junkdrawer]

28. Well Kitty, judging from the posts down thread, you anticipated....

the "well, they volunteered for the event" posts.

[DJ13]

2. The track needs a lexan fence on the part where that guy died

The sides of the track are far too low there, and coupled with those steel uprights beside the track its dangerous.

[frazzled]

3. Well, they need to shut it down.

All these sports have been made increasingly dangerous, and the athletes themselves sometimes do it themselves, dreaming up new stunts and ever harder feats.

I heard an excellent discussion on the radio a month or so ago when snowboarder Kevin Pearce landed in critical condition after a halfpipe accident during an Olympics qualifying trial. It seems these kids are doing ever more dangerous tricks in order to gain top status, and are getting seriously injured (or killed) in the process.

(BTW, Kevin Pearce is the son of NH ceramics and glass artist Simon Pearce, whose stuff is very beautiful, and I assume not dangerous.)

[11 Bravo]

8. I'll leave it to the athletes.

[Junkdrawer]

11. See post #1 n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. I saw it. It compared the luge with Roman gladiators.

Pretty fucking silly. An event where they forced slaves to fight each other to death, versus a race down a fancy hill on a fancy sled, which occasionally has bad accidents. Emphasis on the occasionally and accident. It does not get more kneejerk than this.

[Junkdrawer]

21. It also pointed out the pressure on an athlete to go through with an event....

when everything says that's it is too dangerous, even for those who are the world's best.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Uh huh.

Because an anonymous person on the internet who doesn't even like the sport, or apparently sports in general, is a better judge of a track then the world class athlete who actually does the thing.

Because world class athletes are dumb victims who are too stupid to know any better. They're like slaves, after all.

[Junkdrawer]

26. I guess you think Australia’s Hannah Campbell-Pegg is a fraidy-cat too?

:shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

27. I think if she doesn't want to run it, then she doesn't have to run it.

Hell, I'll run it if she doesn't want to.

[Junkdrawer]

29. I'd pluck a dime in your jar. n/t

[XemaSab]

30. If there was a road near you that had a curve

where half the people who tried to drive around the curve wiped out, would you say that the problem was with the road or with the people who tried to drive on the road?

Some sports, like half pipe, have a high level of danger built into them. Other sports, like luge, should be very safe.

If lugers are getting killed, then the problem is with the track and not the athletes.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. If half the people died on the curve, sure, ban the curve.

If one person is killed on the curve and others have used it safely for years, I wouldn't jump to the immediate conclusion that we need to shut down the road.

[XemaSab]

33. There's a curve on that track

that half of the athletes who attempt the track wipe out on.

Now do you say there's no problems with the track itself?

[cali]

13. Vermont is home to Simon Pearce

not NH.

[frazzled]

38. You're right, so sorry

I've even been to the factory there, and bought a bowl. But you know, I guess all those New England states look the same ;)

[Missy Vixen]

4. Deadspin.com is already reporting that the Canadians

specifically would not allow athletes from other nations to practice on it so the Canadians could obtain the competitive "edge".

I'm wondering how many more wrecks will need to happen before the Olympic Committee decides that perhaps the conditions aren't conducive to a safe race.

[FiveGoodMen]

5. What's wrong with this statement?

"An Olympic official with direct knowledge of the situation says a men's luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia has died after a crash during training. The official tells The Associated Press that the International Olympic Committee received confirmation of Nodar Kumaritashvili's death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the 21-year-old luger's family hadn't been notified yet."

(Hint: anonymity because...)

[Junkdrawer]

6. That whooshing sound you hear isn't from the luge track...

It's from the rush of wrongful death lawyers scrambling for planes to Georgia...

[TexasObserver]

44. My guess? The Olympics will settle this quietly, quickly, and confidentially.

They need to make this go away quickly.

Give the family $5 million, lock it up tightly with a confidentiality agreement, and put it to bed.

[Junkdrawer]

45. Again: Will the family take such a settlement?

It's shameful what that committee said about their son in the media. I know I'd fight like hell to clear my son's name.

[TexasObserver]

46. Sure. They'll get some kind of statement that takes the sting out.

The committee may even retract their assessment as part of a deal.

Often, the parties to such a settlement agree on the wording of the press release and it is part of the deal. I would expect the committee to back track on their unkind words about the athlete.

The committee practically had to say what they did. They have lawyers and insurers who would flip out if they suggested they had done anything wrong.

[HeresyLives]

9. Well apparently it's been in use for 2 years.

[Blue_Tires]

10. damn...90 mph??

i guess i haven't been keeping up, since the last i checked, they topped out at 65-70 on a good day...90 is insane

[Codeine]

39. deleted

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. We should also close down Whistler.

People have died there skiing before.

Safety first.

[Electric Monk]

14. and the roads to and from all the venues while we're at it

I've heard people can die in car accidents :/


but seriously, there should be a plexiglass wall at the corner where this guy died. This particular accident was totally preventable.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Sure, there should be an investigation.

And there already is. And for all we know there's a quick, simple fix to the problem.

[rockymountaindem]

17. Are you serious? n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. I'm literally angry with seriousness.

[rockymountaindem]

32. People die skiing with alarming frequency

It is not usually a reflection on the safety practices of the place where they were skiing. It is most often a result of weather conditions, skiing beyond one's ability or a freak accident. I think about a dozen people die every year skiing in Colorado, if not more. If you were to close every mountain where that happened the whole industry would collapse, sadly.

[RamboLiberal]

34. But it's damn rare for an Olympic athelete to die skiing

IMHO this one was preventable - I say those poles right next to the track were a preventable danger.

[BurtWorm]

19. They've guaranteed their TV audience, now.

[Junkdrawer]

24. NASCAR eat your heart out. n/t

[RamboLiberal]

20. As I said in LBN thread - I don't know much about luge course design

But seemed to me seeing the video & still pics that being bordered by a number of steel poles or supports that close to the track incredibly dangerous to the lugers?

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. This is sick.

This is your year to see bobsled.

[farmout rightarm]

25. I just wish they would quit forcing people to enter those events at gunpoint.

That just ain't right.

[Junkdrawer]

35. The more details about this track I read, the worse the story gets...

10 to 15 MPH faster than any track in the world, and they put the tightest turns at the bottom of the track...

...

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.

...

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

[Manifestor_of_Light]

36. Do they have some engineering standards for these courses?

Like maximum angles? Kind of like engineers that design roller coasters for safety?

[Junkdrawer]

37. What it looks like is this:

Canada designed the Whistler track to be near impossible...

...

The Whistler Sliding Centre is designed to a maximum G-force of 5.02, and sleds will typically pull 2.5 or 3.0 Gs. By comparison, a Formula 1 car might hit three to four Gs when braking, and a top fuel dragster going from 0 to 160 km/h in 0.8 seconds creates a G-force of 5.0.

"The difference in Whistler is you're going 150 through 12, 13, 14," said Gudzowsky, who is an on-track official. "There's a chicane with a lot of pressure and in 15 ... that's where speed becomes an issue. In future the intent will be to stay away from combining high speed and high G-forces. Sochi will be like Whistler in that both are relatively narrow and steep but ... there will be three uphill sections to control the speed. It will be quick. It will be technical. But we will be doing 150 here. We'll be in the 130s in Sochi."

...

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

And then limited practice time for all but the Canadian team.

...

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.

...

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/02/12/death-on-luge-track-leads-to-questions-about-course-canadian-competitiveness/

And the result? Death of a 21 yr. old athlete

[Cass]

43. Canada limiting practice time on the course to other competitors is pretty bad.

Especially on a course that is notoriously dangerous. How can that be allowed?

[applegrove]

40. I wouldn't mind seeing it shut down. One death is too many for any olympics.

[Generic Brad]

41. This is LUGE!!!!

Get a sled, morans.

[Junkdrawer]

42. UPDATE - Officials: Track not deficient, it was the athlete's fault....

...

The Vancouver Olympic Committee and the luge federation, known by its French initials FIL, outlined their findings in a joint statement.

"It appears after a routine run, the athlete came late out of curve 15 and did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into curve 16," they said. "This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem he eventually lost control of the sled resulting in the tragic accident. The technical officials of the FIL were able to retrace the path of the athlete and concluded there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track."

The track will reopen after officials raise the walls at the exit of curve 16 and change the "ice profile," they said.

"This was done as a preventative measure, in order to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again," the statement said.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/13/olympics.luge.crash/?hpt=T3

Let the death(s) resume...

[regnaD kciN]

47. In other words, "who the fuck cares about a Georgian?"

If it was a major competitor from Europe, the U.S., or (God forbid!) Canada, we'd be seeing a National Day of Mourning, and moving those events to another venue. But, some guy from a country straight outta Borat? Just clean the remains of Wedontgiveashitaboutthisloseravilli off the post, and let's get on with the entertainment!

:puke:

[bik0]

48. Classic quote... "No sports mistake is supposed to be fatal"

While an initial probe declared that human error -- and not the luge track -- was at fault in Kumaritashvili's death, Georgia's President, Mikheil Saakashvili, rejected the bizarre rationale. "One thing I know for sure that no sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death. No sports mistake is supposed to be fatal," he said.

http://goo.gl/suRl

[KittyWampus]

49. So when Exxon says they aren't doing anything wrong in Ecuador, that's the truth of the matter

case closed.