I'll preface this by acknowledging that I am not a winter sports expert, much less a luge expert. I am a racing fan though, and as soon as I saw the video of what happened to Nodar Kumaritashvili, the Georgian luger at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, it was obvious why he died. The track is unsafe. It was built unsafe and it should be obvious to anyone but a blind man why it is unsafe.
In this instance, it matters not what caused him to lose control of his sled. The simple fact of the matter is that he did lose control. What killed him was a product of track design. His death was from injuries sustained when he hit vertical supports of some sort that were immediately at track side. When he came off of his sled, momentum slung him into those poles causing horrible injuries. Those poles should not have been that close. You also have to wonder why they didn't back the poles off from the track and provide catch fencing, a wall, or something to prevent the lugers from hitting the poles. Motor Racing tracks, even temporary road courses provide some sort of barrier or catch fencing when there is no choice but to have something like a light pole immediately trackside.
It is my belief that the fault for this athlete's death lies in the track design and in the hands of the officials who didn't see that there was a safer venue for the race. This appears to be a death that did not have to happen. The organizing bodies for luge, skeleton, and bobsled have to look more closely at track design and layout and plan safer tracks.
Mac McCormick III
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