The Vancouver course seems the most extreme luge course, judging by what experienced lugers have to say, but as far as the post issue goes, it’s not really unique in that is it? I was looking through other luging videos, and pretty much all the tracks I’ve seen regularly feature posts along the track, mostly to hold up awning-type structures. I don’t know if the Vancouver posts were particularly in a bad place or if many luge tracks are just poorly designed.
“This is the most extreme/dangerous luge track ever” is a common refrain at the Winter Olympics, because it’s usually true. They are, of course, always making the track harder, because the athletes are always getting better. Each luge track has been faster and harder than the last. The Torino luge track was universally regarded as being the most dangerous ever built at the time:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/sliding/2006-02-16-treacherous-track_x.htm
Whether this in particular is a serious design errors, or the accident was a stone cold fluke, I don’t know - I don’t design luge tracks - but I can’t think of any good reason NOT to have made the walls higher.
I can’t see that the posts beside the track are an issue. If you come off the track at 150km/h, you’re going to hit something and it’s not going to end well. What needs to be looked at is wall height and such to prevent crashes from leaving the course. The track looks to me like every other one I’ve ever seen, but that may just mean that all tracks need to look at wall heights at corner exits.
I don’t know if that would help. He came off the wall early and hit the inside turn. If they put up a wall by the girders then he would have deflected off that and hit another turn. It’s no different than driving a race car and coming off a high bank incorrectly and hitting a wall.
It all happened so fast it’s hard to tell but lt looked to me like he was free-falling after the first impact. And by that I mean he was not aware of what was going on and if there was a wall next to the girder he would have hit that like a limp rag doll and continued on down the track in the same manner.
I question the safety of people standing along the track (photographers?) as they could be struck in similar situations and also present a visual distraction.
There is a slow motion button on the player.
And did anyone have him in the 2010 death pool?
No, you really didn’t.
really?
look, it sucks that someone died. but sometimes shit happens - you don’t need to go running your mouth and showcasing your stupidity; you just make Borat look like a more perfect characterization of your part of the world.
I’m having trouble spotting the stupidity in his statement.
Gary, he is intimating that something amiss is afoot just because someone died in a sports accident. That’s pretty stupid.
Is it possible that something was lost in translation?
I guess I’m as stupid as Borat too, because I agree with him. It was asinine for the Olympic officials to blame the athlete for dying. That was shitty incompetent design and totally foeseeable. Freak accidents are unavoidable in life, but that one wasn’t a freak accident.
I was looking at the “padding” added to the steel polls. Maybe that might make a difference if someone was leaning on the beam next to it and fell on the padding but come on. It wouldn’t help anybody moving faster than 2 mph.
Hmmmm…unpadded concrete support posts right after a curve. Think that might be a problem on a 90+ mph course? It wasn’t Nodar’s fault. It was the design of the course.
Saakashvili is right, and Rumor_Watkins is wrong.
Well, I suppose there should be no auto racing, bicycle racing, boxing, marathon running, sailing, baseball, horse racing, skiing, snowboarding or hockey.
It was a freak accident by a racer who was pretty clearly in over his head. Certainly there could have been changes in the design of the course that would have prevented it, but to imply that this was obviously predicable is silly.
no sports mistake should be fatal, but there are instances with certain sports. Even in ice hockey where the people are geared up with equipment there’s risk of death however small.
there are instances of heart attacks too. Death is always there when life is involved.
Uh, I don’t think anybody’s saying that the sport should be abolished. But yeah, I just watched the video of Nodar’s death again, and it was predictable. Completely.
The world champion and greatest luger in the world also crashed on that course in practice and went out of control. So apparently everybody not born on Krypton was over his head on that course.
:rolleyes:
Yes, completely predictable.
Death is a reality of sport. Has been since the dawn of time. Pretending it isn’t and pretending that accidents can always be prevented is ignorant. Luge is a sport where unprotected people throw themselves down a icy hill on top of razor blades at 90+ mph, it’s inherently dangerous and potentially fatal. The announcers remind of this fact during every broadcast and glorify it and tell harrowing stories of athletes bravery and praise those who crash and are injured and return to the sport.
This racer crashed 3 times in all of 15 runs. On the fatal crash he missed the turn particularly badly. There’s a difference between a F1 driver pushing too hard and losing grip in a turn and a driver steering into a bridge abutment.
Look, I don’t know what the fuck your deal is with me and sports threads, but you can shove your rolleyes up your ass.
Just look at the goddamn course, dude, pre-modification. There are a series of unpadded, square concrete support posts immediately after a sharp turn, and PRECISELY where anyone with a brain in their head would say, “Hmmmm…maybe there’s a chance somebody could jump this low wall at 90 mph and crack their fucking skull open.”
It was utterly predictable.