www.ditl.org

A luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia was killed after a horrific crash on the year-old sledding track Friday, an Olympic official with direct knowledge of the incident told the Associated Press.

On a morning training run, Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled at nearly 80 mph and was catapulted over the lip of the track and slammed into an unpadded metal pole.

http://www.lionsdenu.com/vancouver-2010 ... ctice-run/

Beware, this link contains a video of the man's actual death. Yes, his real, actual death.

Ouch.

At least it was quick, thank God for that.

They've had a bunch of stuff about how this track is considered to be controversial in speeds, while most tracks average speed is in the low 80's this one easily clears 90 mph. After his death the Olympic committee worked overtime to add an extra reinforcing wall to the turn he lost control on, and to rework the angles on a lot of the curves....they've also lowered the initial starting points to drop track speed

At least he went out quickly. Hitting one of the pillars at that speed (and it looked as though it was head-on) would have killed him almost instantly.

A definite case of RIP.

Such a shadow to caste of the winter olympics....

Indeed, it'll certainly put a downer on the opening ceremonies.

Sionnach Glic wrote:Indeed, it'll certainly put a downer on the opening ceremonies.

I didn't think so. IMO it seemed to bring people closer together which is the very spirit of the Olympics.

Indeed, the moments where the crowd showed respect to the deceased olympian were rather heart warming.

I saw the video on the news. A sad thing. RIP, Nodar. *Salutes*