Olympic Luger DIES in crash !

[Nictoe]

Georgian luge hopeful Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed hard during the men’s Luge practice at the Whistler Sliding Center on Friday.

Luge Athlete Killed in Training Crash at Olympics

By LYNN ZINSER
February 13, 2010

A luge athlete from Georgia, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was killed in a crash in training on the Olympic track at the Whistler Sliding Center on Friday, an Olympic luge official at the track confirmed, the worst-case scenario developing on a track that many competitors have said is too fast.

Kumaritashvili, 21, lost control of his sled 48 seconds into his run, near the end of the track. According to the speed clock on the broadcast, he was going 143.3 kph -- 88 mph — and was propelled over the track wall. He slammed into a steel pole near the finish line.

The death cast a pall over the Games as they had barely begun, hours before the opening ceremony was to begin, with American luger Mark Grimmette set to carry the United States flag.

A similar tragedy happened in 1964, the first time that the sport was included in the Olympics, when a British luger died in a training accident on the Olympic course two weeks before the Innsbruck Games opened. An Austrian skier also died in a training accident that year. On Friday, medical officials rushed to the scene and were performing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the Associated Press reported. Kumaritashvili was lifted into an ambulance. An air-rescue helicopter was summoned and was over the track about eight minutes after the crash.

Kumaritashvili struck the inside wall of the track on the final turn. His body immediately went airborne and cleared the ice-coated concrete wall along the left side of the sliding surface. His sled remained in the track, and it appeared his helmet visor skidded down the ice.

“It’s a very rare situation,” Georg Hackl, the three-time Olympic champion and German coach, told the A.P. “But there’s some things that you can’t do anything about.”

The track, however, is considered the world’s fastest and several Olympians recently questioned its safety. More than a dozen athletes have crashed during Olympic training, with many sliders exceeding 90 miles per hour.

Curve 13, higher up on the course, has been dubbed the “50-50” curve by American bobsled driver Steven Holcomb, because he believes those are the odds of getting through it without crashing.

A luger went a record 153.937 kilometers per hour — 95.65 m.p.h., or about 6 m.p.h. faster than ever before — during a test event last year and Josef Fendt, the president of the International Luge Federation, said at the time. “It makes me worry.”

At the finish area, not far from the crash scene, athletes, coaches and officials reacted with horror and sadness and training was suspended indefinitely. “I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Shiva Keshavan, a four-time Olympian from India.

Kumaritashvili competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.

Earlier in the day, the gold-medal favorite, Armin Zoeggeler of Italy, crashed, losing control of his sled on Curve 11. Zoeggeler came off his sled and held it with his left arm to keep it from smashing atop his body. He slid on his back down several curves before coming to a stop and walking away.

Training days in Whistler have been crash-filled. A Romanian woman was briefly knocked unconscious and at least four Americans — Chris Mazdzer on Wednesday, Megan Sweeney on Thursday and both Tony Benshoof and Bengt Walden on Friday in the same training session where Zoeggeler wrecked — have had serious trouble just getting down the track.

“I think they are pushing it a little too much,” Hannah Campbell-Pegg of Australia 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.”

[Biscuit]

Its Bush's fault!!

[theLIBERTARIAN]

Blame it on Obama.

[Biscuit]

Okay!!

[theLIBERTARIAN]

I know there is some way you can blame it on him. What is the angle?

[Biscuit]

I'll just blame it on him for the heck of it!!