It’s Not Just The Luge

It’s difficult to see the photos of emergency workers applying aid to the gravely wounded Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, and just as hard to turn away.  Crashes are what motivate some people to watch sports involving speed.

His was the most serious of several crashes on the Whistler course today which was famous for being the fastest sledding course in the world. Now it will be famous for being a killer too, perhaps due to poor design.  The icy walls of the track failed to prevent Kumaritashvili from sailing over the edge and hitting a metal pole.

When the shock subsides, friends and family may say the 21-year old athlete died doing what he loved, but I hope Olympics officials don’t get caught up in the optimism.  Even if they have to cancel events, I hope they take immediate action to improve the safety of this track. With all the padding in all the sports venues in all the world, why are the metal supports above the Whistler run not padded too?  Had they been covered, Kumaritashvili might have simply bounced back into the track and survived.

I wonder if the Olympics in general have become too risky.  I had no interest in seeing video of Kumaritashvili’s final run until NBC included it before the Opening Ceremony.  It was quite enough to see the photo of him blue and bloodied; one ear mostly slashed off and rearranged on the side of what was left of his head; his parent’s pride now turned to horror.  Like intense and violent Hollywood films, death-defying sporting events are too nerve-wracking for me to watch anymore.

Call me a wuss, but I’ve seen too many crashes through the years not to feel more anxious than thrilled.  It’s the ice. I’ve seen a young figure skater held high above her partner plummet face first to the ice when the partner tripped.  Another pair got out of sync a few years ago and as they both spun, one skater’s face was slashed by the blade of the other skater.  So I no longer watch the Pair’s competition.  I don’t enjoy it. It isn’t pretty.  They should leave the gymnastics to the gymnasts who work on mats, not ice.

I do love figure skating though, so I get my fix with the Singles and Ice Dancers.  Those skaters fall too, but not from eight feet up and not on their heads and it still looks like skating.

I’ve seen downhill skiers hit a patch of ice, lose control, become airborne, and tumble like pinwheels for several hundred feet.  You’d think I’d be relieved when they finally come to a stop, but I’m not, because they sometimes lie motionless in a crumble on the slope.  Are they dead?  Paralyzed? Just catching their breath?  It’s anguish to await the result.

And these runs on bobsleds and luges down icy tubes?  How long will it be before we see one of their crashes without worrying if they’ll die like the Georgian? The athletes fish tale and you know what happens next. You hold your breath that the injuries will not be too severe.

Luckily, most of the time they are not.  These finest human specimens are muscular and young and they’ve crashed many times on the road to Olympic competition.  But the accidents do seem to be more serious in recent years, as evidenced by U.S. Snowboarder Kevin Pearce who hit his head on a practice run last month and was critically injured.

That tumble from the 1970 Olympics where ski jumper Vinko Bogataj fell on his way down and bounced like rubber to the ground was played for years in the opening of ABC’s Wide World of Sports.  Knowing he wasn’t badly hurt made it tolerable to watch.  However since then, athletes have pushed themselves to go higher, faster and farther on increasingly unforgiving surfaces.

The International Olympics Committee owes it to the memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili to give serious consideration to the safety of the Whistler run.  In fact, they would do well to up their game of better monitoring the safety of all venues so that these remarkable young men and women compete in the Games and make it home safely again.

Tagged as: danger, luge, Nodar Kumaritashvili, Olympics