Olympic Luge Contestant Dead

[RIP - VTEnviro]

http://sports.espn.go.com/olympics/winter/...tory?id=4909034

I love the Olympics and am having a few people over to watch the Opening Ceremonies tonight. It's sad to see someone die like that. I can't imagine hitting a steel beam at 90 mph in a car much less on a skateboard with rails. Yikes.

 

[Dexman PE]

Looks like this is probably one of the fastest, most difficult tracks they've ever seen. I'd be scared by the fact there are so many others (including the #1 ranked competitor) have wrecked onthis course.

 

[MechGuy]

This makes me less excited to watch the luge for the crashes.... very sad story.

 

[csb]

A lot of the competitors seem to be coming out and saying it's a death track.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I visited the 1988 venue in Calgary on a road trip through there years back. The ski jump and sled tracks just look scary as a spectator. I went to the top of the ski jump in Lake Placid a couple years later while camping around there, and was scared to wander around without hanging onto something.

These folks are daredevils to start with, and if they think it's not safe, it's probably worth listening to.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

We should all just be really glad that this didn't happen during the actual competition. There would be video of his death from about 50 different angles. I wonder if they will cancel/move the luge and skeleton events to avoid just such an eventuality.

 

[Dexman PE]

We should all just be really glad that this didn't happen during the actual competition. There would be video of his death from about 50 different angles. I wonder if they will cancel/move the luge and skeleton events to avoid just such an eventuality.

or have some kind of "technical difficulties" preventing them from filming.

 

[roadwreck]

We should all just be really glad that this didn't happen during the actual competition. There would be video of his death from about 50 different angles. I wonder if they will cancel/move the luge and skeleton events to avoid just such an eventuality.

or have some kind of "technical difficulties" preventing them from filming.

There is video of it. I won't share it here, but there is video if you care to look for it.

 

[Dexman PE]

I know. I was referring to televising the actual competition. Not sure they want to show any future possible accidents.

 

[klk]

I was watching a news report of it and they actually showed it. I was really surprised!

 

[Supe]

I too saw the video. I thought they said he died at the hospital. There's no way that he lived past impact. Definitely sad, and definitely scary.

What gets me is all the "UNPADDED column" business. Uh, some foam isn't going to do much when you go from 90 to 0 in a fraction of a second.

 

[roadwreck]

What gets me is all the "UNPADDED column" business. Uh, some foam isn't going to do much when you go from 90 to 0 in a fraction of a second.

Yea, padding on the column wouldn't have helped, the only thing that could have saved him was if the column wasn't there at all.

 

[Chucktown PE]

Absolutely awful looking. Seems like a wall on that side of the track would have saved him.

 

[maryannette]

It is very sad, especially to think that his family went from the thrill of him being in the Olympics to his death in a moment.

 

[K8NY]

all fixed

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/sports/o...ics/14luge.html