More About The Luge

Well, the Men's Luge Event at Vancouver has taken place and top German Felix Loch [above] was the winner with David Moeller also from Germany in 2nd. Armin Zoegeller from Italy was 3rd. Congratulations to all of them. Having watched these finals on TV, I can see just how dangerous it is going down an ice track at 90 mph on these glorified tea trays. It is a bit of a nutty sport but I have to admire the men [and women] who do it.
There will have to be more investigation into the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili in practice runs on Friday. It seems as though I was not the only one who criticized the FIL and Canadian Olympic officials for attempting to lay the blame for the tragedy on the head of the dead man. That is quite unacceptable. In a sport like this crashes are inevitable and on such occasions the athlete is going to get a battering. It is not acceptable that he [or she] goes over the top of a safety wall into a row of steel columns - rather more than just a stray pole as the original reports suggested. Many competitors have said that this course is dangerous and the Canadians, anxious to get Canadian medals at these games have given Canadian athletes far more access to this course than they have athletes from any other nation. And just to prove how safe the track is, they have moved the start points farther down the start incline to reduce the speed of the luge at the last bend. Further, they have added about another 8 feet to the height of the wall on the last bend to stop any other luger going over the top.
Following the Friday accident Nodar Kumaritashvili has become probably the most famous luger in history and - posthumously - has given the sport more publicity than it could ever have hoped for by any other means. The officials will come out of this looking like idiots but the competitors will have gained considerable fame and new respect.
/