Olympic Athlete Dies In Tragic Luge Accident

On Friday, February 12th, 2010, the world lost a talented young athlete by the name of Nodar Kumaritashvili. On a practice run at the Whistler Sliding Centre, the 21 year old luge competitor from the country of Georgia was tragically thrown from his sled and hit an unprotected metal pole and died instantly. The tragic accident occurred just hours before the 2010 Winter games opening ceremonies. The young athlete’s death is now a dark shadow over this year’s games.

Nodar was thrown from his sled at the fastest point (a final 270-degree turn) in the track, reportedly going 90 miles (144 km) per hour. The sled bounced over the side rim of the track when he was thrown from the sled. His death was caused when his body impacted on an unprotected metal pole. Rescue workers tried to revive Nodar via resuscitation and chest compressions, but their efforts proved to be a lost cause. Nodar was airlifted to a trauma centre in Whistler and pronounced dead.

Despite attempts of the Olympic International Committee to keep the videos of Nodar’s death away from the internet, they continue to surface. The videos are extremely graphic and show the full content of the accident. It is not to be taken lightly, nor is it to be mocked. The videos show a young man losing his life in the most dangerous Winter Olympic sport. In honour of his memory, the Committee would request the video to not be further streamed. The videos had surfaced on the popular video site, YouTube, but were taken down. Other video sites took down their footage of the crash, such as The Huffington Post.

Prior to Kumaritashvili’s death, there had been multiple accidents in Whistler. Another luge competitor, Italian athlete Armin Zoeggler, also crashed but came away from the crash relatively uninjured. Zoeggler was the 2002 and 2006 gold medalist in the sport.

In addition, this past Wednesday (February 10th, 2010) there were multiple accidents during the women’s luge training runs. Athletes have been complaining that the Whistler track is too fast. Although there have been no other deaths, a Romanian athlete, Violeta Stramaturaru, was knocked unconscious for several minutes and later taken to the hospital.

Kumaritashvili’s death was the first Olympic death since 1992. Over the course of the modern day Olympic games, Kumaritashvili and three other athletes have lost their lives since the games started in 1924. Another luge accident occurred in 1964, causing an athlete to lose their life. There have also been several deaths during the Summer games.

“This is the very gravest thing that can happen in sport, and our thoughts and those of the ‘luge family’, are naturally with those touched by this event”, ILF president Josef Fendt.