Vancouver 2010 Olympics Luge Fatality

Just hours before the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver, a young Olympic athlete has died in a training accident. Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed his luge at Whistler Sliding Center today after he lost control of the sled. The high-speed crash caused him to go over the track wall, where he impacted with an exposed steel pole near the finish line.

Safety of Luge Course Questioned

Luge is one of the most risky sports of a Winter Games, and the course at Whistler is considered to be the world's fastest. There have been a large number of crashes already during training. The fatal crash was Kumaritashvili's second accident during training for the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Some Olympians are questioning the safety of the course itself, as more than a dozen athletes have lost control during practice. A report in Montreal's Le Devoir suggests that snow conditions were involved: the snow is too soft, it claims.

Warm temperatures and lack of snow has been a concern in the days and weeks leading up to the Olympics, but VANOC has been trucking in snow instead of using snow-making equipment, as part of its efforts to hold a "green Olympics." It does make me question the wisdom of holding a Winter Olympics in a temperate rain forest.

There have been suggestions that smaller nations like Georgia had insufficient access to the track to prepare for the Olympics. This question has been raised with other sports as well; Canadians were restricting other teams' access to facilities and taking unfair advantage, said critics. The accusations got so much publicity that Stephen Colbert lampooned the issue on his news satire show, The Colbert Report. Colbert is now set to host some of NBC's coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Previous Luge Fatalities

"It's a very rare situation," said three-time German champion and coach, Georg Hackl.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Shiva Keshavan, an experienced Olympian from India.

But there have been previous fatalities related to downhill winter sports, including one involving a team doctor at the Calgary Games in 1988. There was a death at the 1992 Games in Albertville, and going back to the 1964 Games at Innsbruck, there were two deaths. One was a British luger, Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki, who also died in a crash.

Not Known if Luge Schedule will be Affected

Men's luge events were scheduled for Saturday morning. At this time, it is not known if the competitions will be rescheduled. Access to the luge track was closed off for a short period today, after the crash.

Canada's Drive to be the Best

There has been a certain amount of levity around Canada's drive to capture medals at the Vancouver Olympics, including from comedians like Colbert. Boastful Canadian sports announcers have been talking about how our athletes will come out on top, as if there is no question but that we'll take gold in every sport. Unusual bonuses for athletes who win medals have been announced, and as noted above there has been a tendency to allow Canadian athletes so much access to the facilities, that other teams have felt they didn't have enough time to train.

This highly competitive attitude is not generally associated with Canadians, who sometimes joke about our own hesitance to rock the boat. The Canadian, it is said, is the person who gets bumped into and then says, "I'm sorry," to the person who bumped into him.

I am a proud Canadian. I am frequently frustrated that the distinction between Canada and the United States is so blurred that even school teachers mix Canadian spellings and pronunciations with American ones. I grew up in the generation that learned more about American history and civics than our own, thanks to Schoolhouse Rock. It took educating my own children before I began to really feel I had an identity that differed significantly than that of my American friends - and I live in Quebec, home of the "distinct society,"

I am very much in favour of striving for Canadian excellence, but at this moment I have to ask if we haven't put winning above all else - if VANOC hasn't been aiming for a Canadian win so much that they lost track of what the Olympics are supposed to be about.

Sources:

"Stephen Colbert accuses Canada of cheating at 2010 Olympics" Erin Valois (National Post)

"Colbert heads to Olympics for medals and mockery" Jake Coyle (Associated Press)

"IOC confirms Olympic luger dies after crash" Stephen Wilson (Associated Press)

"Vancouver: un athlète se tue à l'entrainement" Le Devoir