Olympic Fatality

[Nik Habicht]

An awful lot of problems are only identified/dealt with after an incident.....

Safety nets behind the goal in Ice Hockey are a relatively recent improvement --- after a fan died after being hit with an errant puck....

[mpeltier]

The Olympic organizers could never forsee a trajic freak accident like this and have done (and are doing more) everything they can to make it as safe as possible. This track has actually been used for a while now, and has a reputation for bieng very challenging and difficult, and its the first time I am aware of that an athlete has been thrown out of that track.

Mark,

In actuality one of the big complaints about the track was that it was not completed on time to allow many of the competitors sufficient time to practice on it. Couple that with the fact that it is largely recognized as the fastest and most difficult track in existence and you have a recipe for a lot of crashes in training, which there have been.

With respect to not being able to predict this tragedy, as I was watching the video the first time I could see exactly what was going to happen. Having been to the sled track in Park City UT it is apparent there that many design features were incorporated to keep the athletes "in" the track. From the conversations I have been privy to (my Battalion Chief's kid is competing in luge in Vancouver, and my current Paramedic student is a bobsled driver) there is absolutely no reason to not have either a higher wall or some design feature to eliminate the possibility of leaving the track while exiting the high wall corners.

As a last note, having been involved in working for an Olympics, I can assure you, individual safety (be it for competitors, attendees, or employees) is very low on their list of priorities.

Here is a link with quotes from the designer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/13/olympics-luge-track-desig_n_461362.html

The following quotes come from different individuals. I can't imagine they will not play well in the court case. You know what they say about "assumption being the mother of all f*&% ups".

Hackl said luge specialists assume that the competitors who crash will remain on the track and not fly off.

"In luge accidents are part of our daily routine. In the run before, Armin Zoeggeler, the world's best luger, had a spectacular crash. That's normal. You stand up, shake yourself and ride again.

"We assume that those who crash will stay on the track and we don't pay too much attention to the structures outside the track."

Actualy the track was completed Dec 2007, and certified by FIBT and FIL in march of 2008. The world cup Luge was held there in Feb of 2009.

It seems those quotes (like many) are bieng taken out of context. The Luge is a dangerous sport and crashes are expected, as part of the sport. It is easy to see a potential problem after an accident. Not so easy before. It may not seem to you like athlete safety is not a big concern, but I feel differently.

[smokshwn]

The Olympic organizers could never forsee a trajic freak accident like this and have done (and are doing more) everything they can to make it as safe as possible. This track has actually been used for a while now, and has a reputation for bieng very challenging and difficult, and its the first time I am aware of that an athlete has been thrown out of that track.

Mark,

In actuality one of the big complaints about the track was that it was not completed on time to allow many of the competitors sufficient time to practice on it. Couple that with the fact that it is largely recognized as the fastest and most difficult track in existence and you have a recipe for a lot of crashes in training, which there have been.

With respect to not being able to predict this tragedy, as I was watching the video the first time I could see exactly what was going to happen. Having been to the sled track in Park City UT it is apparent there that many design features were incorporated to keep the athletes "in" the track. From the conversations I have been privy to (my Battalion Chief's kid is competing in luge in Vancouver, and my current Paramedic student is a bobsled driver) there is absolutely no reason to not have either a higher wall or some design feature to eliminate the possibility of leaving the track while exiting the high wall corners.

As a last note, having been involved in working for an Olympics, I can assure you, individual safety (be it for competitors, attendees, or employees) is very low on their list of priorities.

Here is a link with quotes from the designer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/13/olympics-luge-track-desig_n_461362.html

The following quotes come from different individuals. I can't imagine they will not play well in the court case. You know what they say about "assumption being the mother of all f*&% ups".

Hackl said luge specialists assume that the competitors who crash will remain on the track and not fly off.

"In luge accidents are part of our daily routine. In the run before, Armin Zoeggeler, the world's best luger, had a spectacular crash. That's normal. You stand up, shake yourself and ride again.

"We assume that those who crash will stay on the track and we don't pay too much attention to the structures outside the track."

Actualy the track was completed Dec 2007, and certified by FIBT and FIL in march of 2008. The world cup Luge was held there in Feb of 2009.

It seems those quotes (like many) are bieng taken out of context. The Luge is a dangerous sport and crashes are expected, as part of the sport. It is easy to see a potential problem after an accident. Not so easy before. It may not seem to you like athlete safety is not a big concern, but I feel differently.

Before or after the fact, it seems that a primary concern should be keeping the athlete in the track. Having been in use for a short time it is understandable that this is the only time a luger has left this particular track. However, there have enough instances of leaving sliding tracks that it should not be a complete surprise that it can happen. As far as comments taken out of context, I have diffculty in imagining a context in which the comments would not indicate that at a very high level the risk of leaving the track is not seen as a potential risk that should be mitigated.

As to the statement about safety concern displayed by the organizers, I lived it first hand while working the 02 Olympics and can tell you without a doubt that legitimate safety concerns were routinely set aside to produce a better "look" for the cameras, better timing for the production folks, and more maximization of profitability. I do have to concede this is probably not the case within the sanctioning/organizing body within a particular sport, however at the much larger level of the IOC, safety did not make the top five.

Either way it is sad that a very simple solution exists in many other racing sports and could so easily have been put in place here to prevent an obviously dedicated young man from losing his life.

Edited February 15, 2010 by smokshwn

[liljohnnie]

His name was Nodar Kumaritashvili and he was 21. I didn't see this information anywhere on this thread and thought it only respsctful to post his name rather than let him continue to be referred to as "that luge guy that died" RIP Nodar.