POSTED: February 14th 2010
NewsUpdate
Luge tragedy still splits Olympic opinion after track safety work
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
VANCOUVER, Feb 14: Divisions remain within the Winter Olympic community over whether the tragic accident which killed Georgia’s Nodar Kumaritashvili was a product of driver error or a construction problem on the track which, hopefully, has now been rectified.
The 21-year-old died hours before Friday’s Opening Ceremony in Vancouver when he lost control near the end of a training run, skimmed a wall and crashed into a support post.
The President of Georgia, Mikhail Sakashvili, advised by his own sports delegation, blamed the track; Sir Clive Woodward, performance director of the British Olympic Association, commented that other competitors were more inclined towards the tragic error answer.
President Sakashvili said: “The international federation said what happened was because of human error. But no sports mistake is ever supposed to lead to death. Questions had been asked about this place. We were told there were suggestions that the walls should have been higher – and the good news is they have been built higher now.
Grievances
"But the best news would be that, in future, the people responsible listened more to the grievances of the sportsmen in advance, not when it is too late.
“Nodar comes from a sportsman’s family with a long tradition of winter sports from his father and his uncle. They wouldn’t have put him at risk without being certain he had undergone all the necessary training.”
However Woodward, able to view the accident more dispassionately, said other competitors felt differently.
He said: “Now the shock has gone away, I think it's fair to say they all as one say this was an error by a young luge athlete. There's over 5,000 runs having gone on this track and it's been classified safe and I think the athletes all think it's a safe track. That was it, it was put down to driver error.
"Clearly they have done a few things, in tonight's two runs they started lower down where the women start and also they just built up that final bank. It was just one of those things that happen in sport and I think everyone has accepted that.
"But, of course, my heart goes out to his family and to all the Georgian team.”
Keywords · Winter Olympics · Sakashvili · Woodward · luge · Kumaritashvili · Vancouver
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