Update 13 February 09:15 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Georgia’s athletes, wearing black armbands and with a black ribbon on their flag, received a sombre standing ovation from the 60,000 people attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Their countryman, luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili, died Friday 12 February while training for the Olympic Winter Games. The death of the 21-year-old is reportedly the first during a Winter Games. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) in Lausanne issued a statement saying that he died at the Whistler Sliding Centre and that the circumstances of the accident are being investigated. “Mr Kumaritashvili died after crashing on the last corner of the course during training. Doctors were unable to revive the athlete, who died in hospital.”
Early news agency reports say that he hit a beam after flying out of the luge at 144kph, but Olympics organizers have not officially confirmed this, although the IOC footage as a reposted video is publicly available on YouTube, showing the official clock.
The luge event will still take place as planned Saturday, Vancouver Games officials say, but the course is closed until then for a police investigation into the accident.
The CS Monitor raises the issue of the safety of the track, considered “the world’s fastest and most difficult.” Corners on it have been dubbed “50-50″ and “Shiver”, reports Reuters.
There have been luge accidents and injuries but the only other death occurred in 1964 during a luge training session for the Innsbruck Games, the year luge became an Olympics sport.
The accident occured just hours before the gala opening ceremony for the Games was scheduled to begin.
Links to other sites: CS Monitor, IOC, Reuters, Vancouver Olympics on luge dangers, and his profile on Yahoo Sports
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 13 February 2010.
Filed under: Sports
Tags: death, Georgian, IOC, luge, Nodar Kumaritashvili, Olympics, opening ceremony, Vancouver, Whistler
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February 13th, 2010 at 12:53 am
Our deepest sympathy to Nodar Kumaritashvili’s family…
February 13th, 2010 at 1:11 am
My god, my sympathy to his family.I hope the olympics compensate his family I am sure they invested quite a lot to get him there and these sponsors will take home a lot of cash regardless
including some of it taken from the people of Canada.Have some conscience help them out
February 13th, 2010 at 4:00 am
Oh, wow! my friend just told me this..I wish he didn’t die..
February 13th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Very sorry for your family, friends & country
February 13th, 2010 at 10:35 am
cancel event show some respect u were told it was too dangarous
February 13th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I STILL wish this didn’t happen, even if I don’t know him it still is sad
February 13th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
This is really sad i hope his family is not gonna be going through a rough time because one bad run had costed him one good life
Love Ya Nodar Kumaritashvili
February 13th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Deepest Sympathy to his family…as he was not just an athlete representing his country..he was someones son…thoughts are with you …
Manitoba Canada
February 13th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
[...] has been moved to a lower starting point, which should reduce speeds by 10 percent, following the death of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili Friday during [...]
February 13th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I watched the footage and it gave me shivers. Thats just so bad that it happened. My deepest sympathy to his family and friends who were looking forward to see him participate, only to have this awaful accident happen. I’m just so saddened by it all. I wish his family a LOT of STRENGTH to be able to carry on. No amount of compensation is worth this young guys death. I just hope they will learn to live without Nodar Kumaritashvili. Its not going to be easy. I really hope he did not endure a lot of pain before his death. it was a bad crash. May God rest his soul in Peace.
February 14th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
That poor guy. I feel so bad. My prayers go out to his family,Friends,and fans.
February 16th, 2010 at 11:16 am
[...] GenevaLunch Posted by :: Ellen Wallace on 16 February [...]
February 16th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
My deepest sympathy to Nodar’s family and may they have strength during this difficult time. Is tthere an address to send a sympathy card to the family?
February 16th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
I am still amazed that everyone misses the point of this youngman s death.The course was faulted,period, why all the quick changes they are now trying to say it was his fault running from their responsibility.The olympics is a HUGE money making organisation, leaving countries with massive debts, family members put their coins together to send young people to perform so that the games could keep their cash flowing.He came to take part in a competition not lose his life because of probable bad construction
I think that members of the public should put pressure on the olympics for answers and regardless of the outcome fair compensation for his family.
February 16th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
I’ve just contacted the Georgian Olympic Committee to ask for an address. I’ll post it here as soon as I have it. I’m sure you’re not the only person who would like to write to them.
February 21st, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Does anyone have an address where my family can send some flowers to this grieving family ? OR have they opened up an donation account for them in Canada to help the family out during these difficult times? ??? Bank Account # ???
ANYONE HAVE ANY NEWS?
This is so tragic.
May he rest in peace , May God get his family through this!
February 21st, 2010 at 9:52 pm
We’ve contacted the luge federation to ask for an address, but no answer yet. Will post it here once we get a reply.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Ellen
You have to take this ball and run with it.Most of us have to move on with our lives but I think you can help the family of this young man by following up.Every day on Canadian Television they are claiming that the viewer ship on some days went into the billions.Please make sure that some of this goes to his family.
Good luck
Walter
February 25th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
We’ll keep trying to contact the family, but I can image they are overwhelmed in every sense right now. Thanks, Walter. Nodar has certainly touched millions of people.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Has an address been found for the Luge Athlete to send a Sympathy card?
March 18th, 2010 at 8:24 am
The Georgian Luge Federation never replied, but I’ve just written to the International Luge Federation to ask if people can send messages there and have them forwarded to the family. The ILF has provided the family with some financial assistance recently, so they are obviously in contact with the family. You might be interested in reading this: http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=314008