I'm sure all of you reading this know exactly what I'm talking about - 21 year old, Nodar Kumaritashvili's life-taking luge crash during his Winter Olympics training run at Whistler track in British Columbia.
For those of you who don't know this story. Kumaritashvili was in his last turn of his final training run. Flying down the track at speeds up to 90 mph, he lost control and crashed into a wall along the final straightaway. He was thrown from his luge and collided with an unpadded steel pole. Paramedics began working on him immediately. However, it wasn't enough, as he was pronounced dead when they reached the trauma center in Whistler. This would have been Nodar Kumaritashvili's very first time participating in the Olympics.
The Whistler track and it's dangers had been talked about for months before training runs. It is supposed to be one of the fastest tracks around. This track scared Nodar Kumaritashvili, as he told his father, and it ended up taking his life. He had been on this track before so it would be very wrong to say that he was unprepared for what the track had in stake. This however, was also his second crash in just a few days.
According to a story on The Huffington Post website, Christian Niccum, U.S. doubles luger answered when asked about track safety, "When you are going that fast it just takes one slip and you have that big mistake."
Kumaritashvili was the fourth athlete/competitor to have died at the Winter Olympics, and the first since 1992. Some people commented that this was a very rare situation that occurred and that the track really didn't seem or look unsafe. However, at least twelve sliders wrecked just that week on the Whistler track. And some couldn't even remember the last time, or if they'd EVER even seen someone get thrown over the wall.
The track crew does it's best and works hard to make sure track is as safe as it can be. And that track, to most people, doesn't seem anymore dangerous than anywhere else.
Another thing that could be considered controversial about this story is that it, it's pictures, and the numerous videos about the story are every to be found.
So I ask you, what are you views on this story?
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I don’t think it was the Olympics’ fault that the Georgian luger died. It was a very unfortunate event that happened. No one should lose their life in an Olympic sport, but the risk comes with the job. Sports Illustrated interviewed Bulgarian luger Ivan Papukchiev, “If we didn’t like the speed, we’d play chess…These are risks in life every day.”
ReplyDeleteI also think it is terrible of the papers, TV stations and internet sites to continue showing the accident. People should consider the luger’s family members when they show the horrible video, and think how they would feel if they would find themselves in that situation.
I also don't think that it is the Olympics fault that the luger died. It's extremely unfortunate that he died. I don't think that anyone should lose their life in the sport that they have chosen to do for their job. Like Katie said, the risk comes with the job, be it with football, luging, basketball, or baseball. It can happen to anyone at any time. I can't believe that the media actually kept the cameras on him while the EMT's worked on him and once he was considerecd dead, they should have cut to a commercial or something. They truly should have thought about what they would want to happen to them in the same situation.
ReplyDeleteI think it was the Olympics fault that Nodar died. Olympics are for the best athletes in the world to compete on the best courses in the world. There should have been padding on that metal pole. I remember reading the course was way to fast. It is a very dangerous course. The normal speed of a whistler track is about 60 to 70 mph and that track average was 80 to 85 mph. The Olympics should have made the track a little slower. When people are not familar of going that fast on a whistler track they might not know how to steer and bad things happen when your not familar with things.
ReplyDeleteI think that if anyone gets hurt there is something wrong. They should make sure that there will be no accidents before they use the tracks. It is very rude of the media to put devistating pictures and videos up all over the internet and news papers. They should put themselves in that families shoes for a couple days. I'm sure that family doesn't want to be reminded of what they don't have anymore.
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