Word: tracks
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...Lawthers doesn't regret letting her son luge; she trusts his skills, and talks about how he's received a rare chance to travel the globe pursuing his passion. But she's angry that the Olympic track designers have been pushing the limits in recent years, and did not install protective walls around the tricky final turn until after the tragedy. "This should not have happened," Lawthers says. "You know that a track can injure your son. You don't think it can kill him. I so feel for his mother. She thought she was sending...
...After the accident, in which Kumaritashvili was thrown from his sled into a metal pole on the track's final turn during a practice run, Olympic officials considered postponing or even canceling the event. But the athletes themselves met with each other last Friday and urged organizers to push forward. "We thought it was a way to show that life goes on," says Shiva K.P. Keshavan from India, who finished in 29th place of 39 competitors. "But Nodar will never be forgotten." Until Friday, the Whistler track was proudly marketed as the fastest in the world, as sleds approached...
...down the mountain, to the area where the women's luge athletes were scheduled to start their race. The near vertical drop at the beginning of the luge runs helped sliders build the excessive speed; eliminating some 600 feet (183 m) from the 4,600-ft. (1,402 m) track kept most runs below 90 m.p.h. (145 km/h). Loch hit 91.6 m.p.h. (147 km/h) on a Saturday heat, the top speed in the competition. Under the new setup, no luge athlete was injured during the two-day competition...
...eliminate the psychological toll of Kumaritashvili's accident. "I was pretty scared the whole time," says Domen Pociecha of Slovakia, who finished 27th. "Of course, what happened will still go through your mind. It doesn't matter where you start." Many athletes were grateful for the adjustments. "The track was really, really fast today," says Polish luger Maciej Kurowski, who finished 23rd. "If we would have kept it at the men's start, it would have been crazy fast...
...Racers in the women's event, which starts on Monday, are even more irked about the changes. While the men started from the women's position, the women will now start their race where the juniors take off, right before the sixth turn in the 16-turn Whistler track. "I understand it," said American Erin Hamlin, the reigning luge World Champion, while taking in the final moments of the men's competition. "But I've worked so hard training from the women's start and getting into rhythm, for nothing." Competitors in the women's event were only able...