A huge black cloud descended over the Vancouver Olympics on Friday after 21-year-old Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a horrific training crash at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
Kumaritashvili was making his final practice slide before Saturday’s competition when he lost control at 165km/h on the exit of the 16th corner and was launched over the rim of the track before crumpling into an unpadded pillar.
His sled and smashed visor continued down the ice towards the finish line which was just metres away.
Medics performed emergency resuscitation at the scene before he was flown down the mountain by helicopter where he died in hospital. Ashen-faced course officials walked around in stunned silence as they waited for news.
“Unfortunately, he died,” Georgian Olympic delegation head Irakly Japaridze told Reuters by telephone.
“We are all in deep shock, we don’t know what to do. We don’t know whether to take part in [Saturday’s] opening ceremony or even the Olympic Games themselves.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Luge Federation (FIL) issued a joint statement confirming Kumaritashvili’s death, the first during the Olympics since Swiss skier Nicholas Bochatay crashed into a snow-grooming machine at the Albertville Games in 1992.
“Our first thoughts are with the family, friends and colleagues of the athlete. The whole Olympic family is struck by this tragedy which clearly casts a shadow over these Games,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said in the statement.
“This is a terrible accident,” added FIL president Josef Fendt. “This is the gravest thing that can happen in sport, and our thoughts and those of the luge family are naturally with those touched by the event.”
‘All heartbroken’
Vancouver organising committee (VANOC) head John Furlong said he was stunned by the fatality on what should have been a joyous day for his staff.
“Nodar came to Canada with hopes and dreams that it would be a great moment in his life,” he told a news conference. “He came to feel what it is like to be an Olympian. We are all heartbroken.”
There were doubts over whether the first two runs of the men’s singles scheduled for Saturday would take place. Team managers were in discussions with the luge federation late on Friday.
The cause of Kumaritashvili’s death would be investigated by the Coroners Service of British Columbia, according to VANOC, while the IOC and the FIL would also carry out their own investigation into the accident.
“The FIL must set the rules for the next few days,” Andreas Kraut, the president of the Germany Luge and Bobsleigh Federation told Reuters. “The security of the athletes must be the priority. It’s a discussion about the security of athletes.”
VANOC said later on Friday that the Olympic and Canadian flags would be lowered to half mast at the Opening Ceremony.
The Georgian National Olympic Committee (NOC) and its athletes wore black stripes as they marched in.
They also placed a black patch on the Georgian flag that would be raised immediately following the parade of athletes.
Kumaritashvili, the son of Selix, the head of the Georgian Luge Federation, was competing at his first Olympics after racing in five World Cup events this year with little success.
Luge fatality
His death was the first luge fatality in the Olympic Games since Briton Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski died during a training run in Innsbruck, Austria in 1964, the debut year for the sport in which athletes hurtle down the track feet first.
An FIL spokesperson said that at a recent international training week at Whistler Sliding Centre, acknowledged as the fastest in the world, there had been 2 500 runs with only a 3% crash rate.
However, athletes have been remarking all week on the speed and technical difficulty of the 1 400m track which features corners nicknamed 50-50 and Shiver.
FIL spokesperson Wolfgang Harder said on Thursday that future tracks would need to be slowed down to protect the safety of athletes.
“We are going to have to put speed limits in the next track which will be built for the Olympics,” he said after Manuel Pfister set the fastest recorded luge speed of 154km/h.
Friday’s fatal accident occurred on the 16th corner, the final curve of a high-speed labyrinth that has proved treacherous even for the world’s top lugers.
Earlier on Friday, double Olympic champion and gold medal favourite Armin Zoeggeler of Italy was caught out at the 11th corner and was flipped off his sled. A Romanian woman competitor was briefly knocked unconscious on Thursday. – Reuters