Shortened Luge Track Upsets Olympic Women

WHISTLER, British Columbia — Several Olympic women's lugers are frustrated by the decision to begin their race from a lower spot on the track.

The women's course at Whistler Sliding Center is about 800 feet shorter now. The switch was made after a Georgian men's slider was killed Friday during training. Many of the women's sliders who begin competition Monday wish the change hadn't been made.

German standout Natalie Geisenberger says racing on the new track is "not fun." She adds that if a switch in the name of safety was to be made, it should have been done a year earlier, "not when one is dead."

American world champion Erin Hamlin says it's extremely difficult to figure out how to handle the new start position.

Comments

[opprobrious]

08:17 PM on 02/15/2010

Total BS. The issue is with the steep drop at the beginning of the men's course. The women SHOULD start at the women's start point. They don't obtain the same speed as the men in the first place. If the men can start from there then why not let the women start from there? It's from there that they've been training.

[mango55]

01:26 PM on 02/15/2010

The shortened track was supposed to reduce speeds, right? But the sliders are still being clocked at 90mph. Am I missing something?

[viewfromuphere]

07:12 PM on 02/15/2010

what your missing is that luge is run on ice down a hill..

you want to totally safety for lugers...ban luge..

otherwise one has accept that those athletes move at lightening speeds...with all risk that goes with it

[cainemain]

10:32 AM on 02/15/2010

They all seem afraid to say that the track design is just plain stupid. Steel columns just off the last curve? Think roller coaster. There don't need to be any structural pieces anywhere above the track. They're being nice to Canada for the moment but my guess has the design becoming an issue after the games end.

[youhavetobekiddingme]

11:15 AM on 02/15/2010

You do need the structure above the track to prevent the sun from shining down on the ice surface this would create an uneven ice surface the unfortunate planning issue is the wall not being high enough

[GrackleFarm]

02:20 PM on 02/15/2010

Yes you're correct, couldn't they build plexi-glass walls (like they have at hockey rinks) above the ice? How difficult could that be? Athletes would be contained and fans would still have a clear view.

[youhavetobekiddingme]

09:37 AM on 02/15/2010

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/sliding/2006-02-16-treacherous-track_x.htm

the above is an article from 2006 where people talk about the dangerous track in Torino where an American was hospitilzed where other nations complained about a lack of access

not trying to make less of the death I was shaking after seeing the video and pray for his family just getting weary of the bad Canadian press & misinformation

[viewfromuphere]

07:28 PM on 02/15/2010

thank you for posting and sincerely hoping those thinking this is somehow a brand new problem (probably because until a few days ago they had never heard of luge) have a read.

I think it's good to question to question the track design but also think it's time to stop with this idea that every athlete is equal and that just, in high risk sports, one needs to be up in the top twenty..not the top 100 to run demanding courses.

because really the only way to protect a luger and make courses safer it to limit speed and incline and just have the athlete meander their way down.

and that's not the sport these athletes are training to do.

again...you want to take the danger out of extreme sports...get rid them..

[Libertarian09]

01:13 AM on 02/15/2010

Why not just make the track flat and completely safe? As Bill Maher once said of Nascar, "if they make it any more safe it will be like watching traffic". The very appeal of these sports is the inherent danger. I am not totally heartless and I feel for the people who have lost this young man from their lives. It's sad when anyone loses their life but ultimately many people will make decisions that will cost them everything. If he was fearful of this track he should not have gone on it.

[loria]

10:48 AM on 02/15/2010

I have to agree with you. It is a tragedy and perhaps one that could have been prevented. But, as I watch most of these sports they are pushing more and more all of the time. The athletes do higher more dangerous jumps. The track s and ski runs are designed to be faster. Many of the winter sports are really dangerous, and something about pointing one's body downhill and going extemely fast appeals to these athletes. It is part of what sets them apart fromt he rest of us. I admire their courage and determination.

[viewfromuphere]

07:35 PM on 02/15/2010

thank you....I'm glad somebody else thinks that just maybe this young man ought not to have been on the course at all if it bothered him that much.

maybe it's time to start asking the Georgian federation where they were while this young guy was expressing these fears.

[snobama]

12:10 AM on 02/15/2010

how fitting for the germans to lack the sensitivity gene...

[KIVPossum]

03:02 AM on 02/15/2010

What? Geisenberger and others are not allowed their opinion? And the article includes on American who is not content with the new start position, so singling out one team is a bit narrow of you

[RThM]

10:39 AM on 02/15/2010

Yes. America, land of sensitivity and racial stereotyping.

[KimberleyC]

11:43 PM on 02/14/2010

I echo the sentiments of many others here who say that the tragic events could have been foreseen. It was completely negligent, if not gross negligence, to leave an open part of the track, completed by only a half-wall with steel or concrete pillars on the other side. The padding I saw them putting up today was completely insufficient and wouldn't prevent a similar injury or death.

[holyghostie]

10:54 PM on 02/14/2010

Only the most robot like engineer would design a track that has exposed concrete pillars at the top of the track....and than doesn't insist they get wrapped in some sort of cushioning device or build a high wall (LIKE THEY MANAGED TO DO OVERNIGHT AFTER THE ACCIDENT)

The kid didn't have to die. Its a shame.

[mtracy9]

11:15 PM on 02/14/2010

That's correct. All engineers had to do is employ some basic physics in order to determine that these athletes had enough energy to go off the track and into the pillars.

[loria]

10:51 AM on 02/15/2010

I think that they need to keep these lugers on the track. It seems to me that that would be the most important thing to keep these athletes safe. While it seems that the poles should have been padded I also wonder how much it would have helped when considering the speed he was flying through the air.

[CigarGod]

09:11 PM on 02/14/2010

I just feel like posting an Olympic song.
Maybe the Luge athlete would approve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrCA0HK-yO0

[lisakaz2]

08:46 PM on 02/14/2010

This probably is a monkeywrench that upsets the favorites because they cannot so easily count on their advantages. Is it fair or fairer? Not sure it is either. But if they left the route alone and had another serious injury, you'd never hear the end of it.

[HarrietteTheSpy]

10:20 PM on 02/14/2010

I don't see why they don't let the women start where the men now do - which is where the women were supposed to start originally. They moved the men for safety to the women's original start place. I dunno... obviously the move they made for men was sensible (and the track negligence ridiculous) but sensible enough for women too?

[lisakaz2]

10:26 PM on 02/14/2010

I agree. The women being typically lighter aren't going to get to same speeds. I wonder if it isn't an ego thing. The women can't possibly start where the men start! (Or something like that.) It reminds me to mention how women don't get to do ski jumping in the Olympics. Some guy even said that the jumping was more harmful to women, like it hurt their "girl parts" more. So don't think s-xism didn't get in the way of logic there.

[KevinSutton]

07:52 PM on 02/14/2010

(continued)

VANOC stifled descent: Ordinarily one would need evidence of the organization shutting people up; the fact that there are quotes of complaints floating around suggests the complete opposite of this.

Changing the track is an admission of guilt: It isn't. Certainly that arguement wouldn't be accepted in any courtroom. It could very well be either a compromise with those who have concerns, or an allowance of the possibility that a mistake was made; it hardly indicates that the track was unsafe or that they had to have known that.

The victim cannot be blamed: Tactless maybe, and he may not be primarily or even significantly to blame depending on the final findings, but obviously he did do something different to be the only one to leave the track.

This doesn't absolve VANOC of everything that they could have known or done. But there are a lot of people leaping to alarmist conclusions or screaming about conspiracies or negligence based on 'facts' that are either deceptive or aren't facts at all.

[CigarGod]

08:18 PM on 02/14/2010

The facts:
The athlete is dead because of two very hard hits; both on the inside ice wall where he hit his head and again when he left the track and hit the steel beam.
The track was obviously not designed for the line he took. It should have been.
The track should have been designed for the least experienced of sliders.
It is not.
Even the number one ranked athlete in the world has had serious injuries on that track and wondered if she would die on it.

[Bluebell1]

08:35 PM on 02/14/2010

I didn't see the first part of your post, but am curious as to why you are being an apologist for Campbell, Furlong, Rogge, etc. You must work for them. VANOC has consistently rammed this whole circus down the throats of British Columbians, completely ignoring the will of the people. In their obsessive drive to spotlight Vancouver and "own the podium" they have shamed Canadians and the spirit of the Olympics. Several athletes in the days before this awful tragedy expressed concerns about this track. Many wiped out with poor Nodar going furthest off course. But did anyone listen and change the track before anyone got seriously injured? No, the human element of this game is evidently inconsequential.

[KevinSutton]

07:51 PM on 02/14/2010

VANOC designed an unsafe track:
The IOC and their designer designed it. No one had concerns before the track was completed. They may not have like the track, but no one knows if the athletes actually asked for changes to the track before the accident.

The beams should have been padded, there should have been a net, whatever:
Out of all the official luge tracks and all of the hundreds, if not thousands of practice and official runs taken throughout the sport on this and other tracks, no one had ever left the track before. It's like demanding cars have to be bullet proof because it could conceivably happen. No one can mitigate risk to be absolutely zero.

VANOC cheated by restricting access:
On average visiting nations have had more access at Vancouver, then they have previously in other Olympics. Some have claimed falsely that the home team having more access is unfair or untraditional when to the contrary --this is exactly what happened at Turin, at Salt Lake, and at every previous winter games. There's nothing different about it except that the home and visitors each got more practice runs at these venues than before.

The luger would have survived if he could have had more practice time:
He died during his practice runs. This claim is BS on the face of it.

[huffponewbie]

06:16 PM on 02/14/2010

I skateboarded for a decade. This was before skate-parks but at the advent of the sport becoming "extreme". If a flight of stairs was to long or too tall, if a hand-rail was to sketchy, if a half-pipe was too poorly constructed we just did not skate it. We took responsibility for assessing the dangers and our abilities ourselves. So lugers do the same. Luge and don't complain if you suffer ill consequences or don't and stay safe. You are trained atheletes make up your minds and stop complaining. My condolences to this boy's family, friends, and colleagues but he knew (or should've known the risks) and went ahead regardless.

[CigarGod]

06:50 PM on 02/14/2010

Was that a state of the art, 100 million dollar flight of stairs?

[huffponewbie]

08:41 PM on 02/14/2010

No it was not. However, it was my body, my health, and, ultimately, my responsibility.

[patrickhenrypress]

07:04 PM on 02/14/2010

I skateboarded, too. So did my son. So did his step-brother. So what? You weren't the 44th ranked competitor in the world in your sport, I'm sure. And you never went to the Olympics, with all of the pressure and national pride on the line.

Officials allowed an unpadded steel pole placed immediately adjacent to the track which killed an athlete when he struck it in a section of track with low walls, near the bottom of the run where race speeds are high. These racers are unprotected save for a helmet. They knew they had an extremely fast track. What about this doesn't scream negligent homicide to you?

Blaming the racer for his death due to dangerous race conditions deliberately ignored (crashes since November) at the cash cow known as the Olympics is so Roman of you. Perhaps you'd prefer the luge end in a lion pit?

Memo to Canadian officials: Competitor safety is priority 1, not stifling dissent. Perhaps you ought to consider what the women are now saying before you have another tragedy to deal with.

[lisakaz2]

08:56 PM on 02/14/2010

Nicely put. I've seen so many ski runs put padding in front of possible obstacles. Having metal poles there without protection or coverage seems so shortsighted. And given what they constructed, it doesn't look like anyone's view was furthered by those pillars being exposed. There were so many ways they could have limited the potential of striking one of 'em. I don't understand why no one thought of it. I know they did not want someone to die on the track but it does seem so unbelievable they were exposed. Someone needs to explain that.

[imaxfli]

06:09 PM on 02/14/2010

And if Canada really withheld practice time for non-Canadiens, they should NEVER be able to host an Olympics again!!!

[youhavetobekiddingme]

09:25 AM on 02/15/2010

that is not a fact & it should no longer be thrown out there like it is every host nation has that opportunity I guess it was ok when it was Italy or Salt Lake

Other countries have been given the same access

[imaxfli]

06:08 PM on 02/14/2010

All they had to do was have a wall where the beams were that he hit...and why you wouldn't have one on the outside of a turn that far down the track(when they are going the fastest) is so totally beyond me that it sickens me. The person in Charge of Safety for that event should be arrested and tried for manslaughter!