Word: kumaritashvili
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Hours before the ceremony began, Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, died after a high-speed crash during a training run at the Whistler Sliding Center, north of Vancouver. On the final turn of the track, Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled, struck an inside wall and was catapulted over the low outer wall of the track, into an unpadded steel support column. His sled was traveling at 88 m.p.h. The ghastly replay of the accident was shown several times on Canadian national television. Viewers screamed when they saw the clip...
...Worse, Kumaritashvili's death may have been preventable. Yes, luge is an inherently dangerous sport in which sliders can approach speeds reaching 90 m.p.h. The speed is part of its allure, and the rush of the event is what attracts audiences. However, throughout this week's training runs, athletes have voiced their concern about the safety of the Whistler track, which is the fastest in the world; last February, a German athlete was clocked traveling more than 95 m.p.h. during a luge World Cup test event. Over the past week, about a dozen athletes have crashed during luge training here...
...track and the steep curves at the top propel sliders at unprecedented speeds at the outset, making the later twists and turns even trickier to negotiate. "I think they are pushing it a little too much," Austrian luge athlete Hannah Campbell-Pegg told the Associated Press the day before Kumaritashvili's fatal accident. "To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we're crash-test dummies? I mean, this our lives...
...ceremony retained its festive flair and feeling of brotherhood, but Kumaritashvili's death clearly weighed on the minds of the participants. "Shock," U.S. speedskating star Apolo Ohno wrote in an email when asked to assess his mood before the ceremonies. "Heart goes out the Georgian team." Holcomb says the tragedy "put a damper on a lot of our spirits...