RIP Nodar: So many questions

Just hours before everyone's supposed to be putting on happy faces, the mood in the runup to these Olympics has gone from skittish to haunted. Forget all those stories about weather, and security, and cost overruns. Nodar Kumaritashvili came here, 21 years old, to have the time of his life. And time ran out for him. 

Clearly, these Olympic Games cannot be called off. But they surely can be written off after Kumaritashvili died this morning after a training accident at the Whistler Sliding Centre. At a press conference this afternoon, IOC president Jacques Rogge and VANOC CEO John Furlong expressed their shock and deep condolences and announced an investigation involving the IOC and the international luge federation. Among the unanswered questions:

Will Georgia continue here, and should the sliding sports, and luge in particular, go on as scheduled? The head of the team's delegation said a decision hasn't been made. As for Whistler, Rogge said that team leaders in the sliding sports will be consulted. Other options like making the course shorter, or draping the course with netting, were not addressed at the news conference.

Why did this happen? The Whistler course has acquired a fearsome reputation since it opened in 2007. It was clearly built to operate at the extreme margins of the sliding sports, and has got even faster at these Olympics. Indeed, there were warnings that this was too close to the edge:

"I think they are pushing it a little too much,” Australia’s Hannah Campbell-Pegg said Thursday night after she nearly lost control in training. “To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we’re crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives.’’

How much of a factor was experience? Kumaritashvili was never thought to be anything but a raw also-ran, but in a sport like this, operating at speeds like this, why let him or other similar athletes compete at all? This isn't Eric the Eel in the pool.  

And speaking of experience, how bad does Canada look now for cutting back on competing nations' practise runs at the new facility? The luge federations of Canada and the U.S. in the past offered each other extra practice runs ahead of the 2002 Salt Lake and world championships in Calgary, but Canada cut back on that agreement this Olympic cycle. 

There are more, no doubt. The Olympics have endured tragedies, like the Munich 1972 massacre. But this one will resonate in a different way, after it was replayed over and over on Youtube videos that were shut down by the IOC as fast as they sprung up. There has to be some serious soul-searching going on in the IOC, the sport's leaders and Vancouver organizers.  

Rogge, Furlong and IOC spokesman Mark Adams promised more communiques on this. Meantime, the mood in the main press centre, and doubtless up at Whistler and in the athletes' village, is funereal. RIP Nodar. 

UPDATED

Related: Jim Byers' Day 1 video report.

Comments

[Sad Start]

Where are the catch fences?

[Hughes]

It is sad that an Olympic athlete whether top notch or otherwise died at a training course. It speaks ill of Canadian attitude of not allowing international athletes to practice on their new tracks and get a feel for it. Do Canadians want to see athletes from other nations die or get hurt while their acclaimed ones raise up on the podium with gold medals in hand? Sadly, this Olympics will be remembered for this fallen athlete.

[Matthew]

I don't understand why the press continues to show the luge accident. I was disgusted by CTV for showing the entire accident, and then showing it in slow motion. SLOW MOTION, ARE YOU SERIOUS? I understand the accident needs to be reported but showing it on their sports broadcast channel is completely unacceptable. Who sat around a meeting table to decide they would show the clip? The IOC already deemed it inappropriate to show on YouTube. I am extremely disappointed in CTV and any other news network that has decided to show the clip over and over again.

[Cian OSullivan]

An absolute tragedy for Nodar, his family friends and the loving people of Georgia. Georgia walking out in the march of nations, demonstrates the intention, and foundation of the Olympic movement.

As a host nation of impeccable science, engineering, and a commitment to safety, any lasting stain from this tragedy will rest with organizers who should have, or did know the peril facing competitors.

While speeding down a track at 134 kmh has its inherit dangers, we as hosts have a duty of care over all participants. We vow we will not put you in harms way.

The question is.... did we fail in our duty?

While an answer is needed I wish the Olympic does, and should live on.

[Kier Mizuik]

I would like to see this man's family recieve an honorary medal for this sacrifice .
the people of the world where watching , it is not going to be easily forgoten , and nore will it be , the accident .
but he the young man will be respected and never forgoten as one of only a few that i hope the last to die from the sport he loved and did so well.
this is the first time i believe and hope it be the last time to see some one die at the hands of the publics need for entertainment , or should i say the Olympics.

[matt]

The man was on his 27th run and crashed and died. its a shame, but Im not sure how Canada letting him have a 28th run would have done to change this tragedy. Why is that drum being beat? It doesnt make any sense. He had lots of practice on this course, and died during one of those practices. Its not like they sent him out during the actual competition with no practice. He died DURING practice - how does more practice prevent this?