Luge Crash Olympic Death Photos – Olympic luge contender Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a horrific crash on the Whistler sliding track just hours before the opening ceremony.
His death stunned Olympic officials who said that Kumaritashvili lost control of his luge sled at 90 mph, bouncing off both walls of the final and most dangerous turn on the course – an extremely sharp 270 degree turn – before flying over the edge and hitting an unpadded metal pole head first.
The Whistler slider track is the fastest and most dangerous in the world with speeds that even the athletes are complaining about.
Kumaritashvili came off his sled after bouncing off both walls in the final turn right before the enclosed finish line.
His high rate of speed carried him up and over the icy track wall.
The last turn is a super sharp 270 degrees and comes when the lugers are at top speed with very little room for even the tiniest mistake.
The 21-year old Olympian was unlucky and flew backward, hitting head first into a metal support pole just after the spot where the track walls become lower in height as the finish line is just ahead.
Paramedics rushed to administer CPR and stop the bleeding. 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili was then placed on a stretcher with blood literally pouring from his head and taken away in an ambulance.
He suffered a skull fracture so severe that there was little they could do. Kumaritashvili was coached by his father, Feliqs, who witnessed his son’s death.
A helmet can’t save you from a headfirst impact with a metal pole at 80 mph.
Moments before the crash American luger Bengt Walden, who had just crashed in his practice run, said that FIL officials had already expressed concerns about the speed of the track.
“I don’t think they’re going to build more faster tracks than this,” he said when asked if this one was at the outer limit of how fast a track can be.
“The FIL was almost unhappy with how fast the track turned out to be but we’ll see.”
A few moments later Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed and died in his final training run.
“Mr. Kumaritashvili died after crashing on he last corner of the course during training. Doctors were unable to revive the athlete who died in hospital.
“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,” said IOC president Jacques Rogge.
“We are deeply struck by this tragedy and join the IOC in extending our condolences to the family, friends and teammates of this athlete, who came to Vancouver to follow his Olympic dream,” said John Furlong, CEO of the Vanoc.
The International Luge Federation’s Fendt said: “This is a terrible accident. 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.”
And those are all the sad Luge Crash Olympic Death Photos.
Tags: luge accident, luge crash photos, luge death, luger killed, Nodar Kumaritashvili, Olympics Luger Killed In Crash, whistler luge death
February 13th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Luge accident details
Kumaritashvili, who had crashed during training on Wednesday, was nearing the bottom of his sixth practice run in a turn nicknamed “Thunderbird.”
His last recorded speed was 89.4 mph, measured near the last curve. He was on a higher path — line, they call it in luge — down the final bends than most sliders prefer, and the combination of speed and gravitational pull was too much for his 176-pound body to control.
Sliding diagonally, Kumaritashvili smashed into a corner entering the final straightaway feet-first.
He was knocked off his sled and sailed in the other direction, apparently hitting his head before coming to rest on a metal walkway. His sled stayed on the track and skidded to a stop near the finish line.
The first rescue worker just happened to be nearby and was at his side within three seconds.
At the finish line, there was a loud gasp as onlookers watched in horror as he was catapulted helplessly through the air.
Officials quickly switched off a giant TV screen showing the action on the track and did not show a replay of the incident.
Soon after, the track was closed as local and Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept media members at a distance as the investigation began.
Kumaritashvili’s inexperience may have played a factor in the crash, but he had qualified to compete. This would have been his first Olympics. He competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.
“When you are going that fast it just takes one slip and you can have that big mistake,” U.S. doubles luger Christian Niccum said Thursday, when asked about track safety.
“All of us are very calm going down, but if you start jerking at 90 mph or making quick reactions, that sled will steer. That’s the difference between luge and bobsled and skeleton, we’re riding on a very sharp edge and that sled will go exactly where we tell it to so you better be telling it the right things on the way down.”
February 13th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Olympic Luge Track Too Fast?
The design firm commissioned to build the Whistler Sliding Centre vowed to create the “most challenging” course ever made.
It now promises to be the last of its kind.
The International l Olympic committee is investigating how the course, originally designed for speeds of 137 km/h, allowed athletes to set world records of more than 153 km/h.
Those speeds had athletes and officials questioning course safety leading up to the Games and Friday’s death of a Georgian luger.
“The track is too fast,” Joseph Fendt, president of the World Luge Federation, told London’s Daily Telegraph. “We had planned it to be a maximum of 137 km/h but it is about 20km/h faster.
“We think this is a planning mistake.”
When the course was proposed in 2005, Lorenz Kosichek, project manager for the design firm Stantec, said:
“It will be the most challenging track in the world.”
Reached Friday, after the death of luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili, Kosichek said it was “too soon” to address serious safety concerns which were expressed long before the tragic accident.
February 26th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Stantec, IOC, Vanoc should be held liable.
In the scheme of things how much would it have cost to pad all suppot & other surfaces adjacent to the track.
Even nets could have lessond the result.
RIP Nodar Kumaritashvili
March 1st, 2010 at 2:49 am
I totally agree. It is such a shame that a young man had to die before u padded those metal frames. It’s kind of late don’t u think? What a tragic loss!
March 1st, 2010 at 3:06 pm
even though if they were padded i dont think it would make much difference. i think he would still be dead. but well, what can you do if is your time you will die no matter what, i am sure wont be last accident on olympic games
June 29th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Paraguay progresses to the quarter finals of the World Cup! Who’d have thought so?