Tragedy Opens the Games

The déjà vu felt by all in Vancouver yesterday was not at all welcome leading into the Opening Ceremony – having another death in the Olympic Family so early in the Games, nonetheless during the Games at all – was a punch in the gut. People were very emotional here yesterday, in shock and disbelief.

A luge athlete from the country of Georgia lost control of his sled during a training run up in Whistler, was thrown from the track, hit the metal beams holding up the track, and died on the scene.

I’ve seen footage of the crash, which is pretty eerie in itself, and my main impression was that he was absolutely flying down the track – going soooo fast. When he gets thrown from the track he looks like a rag doll, The whole crash is over so quickly there’s nothing to see beyond him flying out.

There is a lot of finger pointing going on for a number of reasons. First, this track is the fastest in history; it’s testing athletes beyond their limits at speeds upwards of 90 mph. Think about that – you can’t even drive a car that fast, even with seatbelts and airbags and windshields. Second, athletes were already expressing concern and apprehension about the danger of the track. In fact, another athlete was knocked unconscious earlier in the day Friday when she was thrown from her sled during a training run. And third, in order to give their own athletes a home field advantage, officials in Canada have limited the amount of access to the track any non-Canadian athletes have gotten since it was built. This might earn them more medals, but it deprives the rest of the world’s athletes from building up a familiarity and knowledge for the track, its twists and turns, and how to navigate them effectively.

They’re moving forward with competition today, but they’ve put pads up on the metal beams, and they’re having the men begin from the women’s start (similar concept to women’s tees in golf), so that their speeds are not as high when they reach the bottom.

In any regard, it’s too little too late. I can’t imagine what the Georgian Olympic Team is going through. They marched in the Opening Ceremony yesterday, but their mood was obviously very solemn and sorrowful.

Our concerns are with our U.S. luge athletes right now, primarily for the psychological turmoil they’re going through. They literally have to compete on a track with blood on it. Many of them were already apprehensive about this extreme track, and this tragedy makes the dangers of their sport even more real.

U.S. athletes in luge, bobsled and skeleton are all meeting with our team sport psychologists to work through the tragedy and how to move past it. Our media services team is also working with them and how to face the difficult questions they’re getting when they meet the press in the mixed zones. I’m not directly involved, as the track is up in Whistler, but my colleagues are keeping us up-to-speed and working hard to provide the best support possible.

Our women and men’s lugers all trained on the track today without incident, and the men’s singles event is tomorrow, Sunday. All of our thoughts will definitely be with the Georgian Olympic Team, and with the family and friends of Nodar Kumaritashvili.