Tragic Start to Vancouver Olympics

While checking out twitter earlier today I first saw the news about the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili. He died after crashing at high speed in a training run for the men’s luge event at the Vancouver Olympics. This came just hours before the opening ceremony for the Vancouver winter games.

Kumaritashvili, 21, was to have represented Georgia at the Winter Games. He crashed on the final corner of the high speed track and went out of the track and hit a metal post. I saw a replay on tv however they spared the viewers the moment of impact.

Unfortunately this is the third time that a competitor has been killed during a Winter Olympic event.

It was at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck when British luge slider Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski and Australian alpine skier Ross Milne were also killed in training accidents. Another death took place at the Albertville Games in 1992 Swiss speed skier Nicholas Bochatay however his event was only a demonstration event.

It is a sad day for the Olympics and especially the family of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

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