- Joined
- Aug 4, 2003
I think the media is hyping up the whole "Georgian luger was terrified of the track." I think he knew it was a hard course and was scared of one of the turns but not so much that he wasn't going to do it. Everyone is "scared" (or should i say daunted) of this track, even the veterans (one of whom calls a turn "the 50-50 turn" because that is your chance of making it.) The luge federation president even stated that this track worried him when he first saw it. This kid was luging his whole life, his dad was also a luger. As "inexperienced" as he was, he was still an Olympic caliber luger. Most lugers come into their prime in their late 30's, early 40's (like gold medal favorite Zoeggler). Age and experience play a great role in luging. VANOC and the luge designers don't want to admit negligence for legal reasons, but there was plenty wrong with this track. It was too fast, it has exposed steel beams (could have used flexible fiberglass instead), and yeah, the walls could have been raised or other additional protections could have been implemented at the harder turns. No doubt there was some driver error involved, but there should have precautions to predict and accomodate that.
There was a report yesterday that many lugers were worried about the safety of the track.
Except we won't hear any more comments about it, because they are now prohibited from talking about the track at all, per official orders (this comes from Eurosport media review, I don't remembere which paper wrote this.)
I agree that the track itself is not the main problem, but the lack of proper safety precations.
I feel horrible for the Gergian luger and his family and I pray there won't be any more serious accidents.