Word: whistlerisms
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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...
...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. A Romanian Olympian was briefly knocked unconscious...
Lindsey Van holds the record - among both men and women - for the longest jump off Whistler, British Columbia's normal ski jump, built for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The 25-year-old skier trains six days a week, 11 months a year, and has been jumping for the past 19 years. But when the Games kick off on Feb. 12, the 2009 women's ski-jumping world champion will be nowhere in sight. That's because women aren't allowed to ski jump in the Olympics. (See TIME's 25 Winter Olympic athletes to watch...
Women's ski jump will likely be included in the Olympics one day, but for now the women remain on the sidelines. If Van's record at Whistler is surpassed this Olympics, it will be done...
...little selfish too. To boost its host-country advantage, Canada has gone so far as to limit competitors' access to facilities like the sliding track and downhill-skiing course in Whistler and the speed-skating oval in Vancouver. That has drawn the ire of foreign athletes, particularly the Americans, who've made a stink about it. "We tried to get into the facility this summer for training, but they were charging an insane amount of money to let us skate there every day," wrote Apolo Ohno, the U.S. short-track speed skater and five-time Olympic medalist...