2/12/2010 9:21:56 PM

Not to get too off track of this story and what not, but i fail to understand how this is an Olympic sport. This strikes me as being another form of bungee jumping or parachuting or a ridiculous thrill ride.

2/12/2010 10:43:05 PM

It doesn't take an enormous amount of skill and control to bungee jump.

You or I would probably be off that sled by the fifth turn.

2/12/2010 10:45:51 PM

I know, but I also fall off of skate boards about 4 or 5 turns in as well. What I really mean is this should be in the X-Games, not the Olympics.

2/12/2010 10:47:48 PM

Then skiing should be out, too.

And speed skating.

And bicycling.

Pretty much anything where you just go fast and the better performers go faster.

2/12/2010 10:49:43 PM

I say we keep them, but we add some well written backstories like they do with pro-wrestling.

2/12/2010 11:05:24 PM

Nodar Kumaritashvili , I'm happy for you, I'm gonna let you finish but 3 had one of the worst fatal crashes of all time OF ALL TIME



[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 11:07 PM. Reason : sry]

2/12/2010 11:06:25 PM

just got the rapidshare video... wow, 89mph backwards into the poles.

some premie needs to PM me. I will host if they will embed

2/12/2010 11:07:14 PM

fucked up

2/12/2010 11:07:35 PM

they played the video on nbc prior to the ceremonies

2/12/2010 11:08:12 PM

I agree with d7freestyler, vinylbandit, and EMCE.

2/12/2010 11:14:52 PM

2/12/2010 11:17:47 PM

I am sorry but I fail to see how speed skating and bicycling relate to the sport in question.

I acknowledge that I am not up to date on the training and conditioning for this sport, but it seems not much more physically demanding than drag racing. Speed skating and bicycling at least involve intense muscular movement, control, and endurance rather than holding on for dear life.

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 11:33 PM. Reason : forgot key modifier ]

2/12/2010 11:24:21 PM

2/12/2010 11:25:37 PM

i hate to see people die doing what they like or make a living off of...sad stuff

2/12/2010 11:30:03 PM

^^^ You think you don't have to steer the thing, and that it doesn't require an immense amount of leg strength and muscular precision to keep from sliding up the turn and falling off the wall at 90 MPH?

^ Better than dying sick in bed.

2/12/2010 11:30:32 PM

he has to be able to throw himself off the starting grid and paddle with his hands in order to get up to speed, which probably takes incredible strength to do. You have to be keep your body in an aerodynamic shape, which is probably no easy task either. I'd think that the steering input takes a lot of strength at those speed, not to mention amazing reflexes to be able to react at 90mph or more.

If you want to bitch about a sport with no talent or athletic ability, focus on curling.

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 11:33 PM. Reason : .]

2/12/2010 11:30:57 PM

^ You steer a luge with your legs and some core input.

2/12/2010 11:32:04 PM

I heard that he was killed because he was about to publicly speak out about government involvement in 9/11.

2/12/2010 11:36:31 PM

yeah, I was thinking about Bobsledding for a minute there.

2/12/2010 11:37:04 PM

I'm pretty sure this was a Russian plan to dishearten Georgians

2/12/2010 11:40:01 PM

Quote :

"Better than dying sick in bed."

What if your bed is rocketing down a luge track at 95mph?

2/12/2010 11:41:21 PM

doing it probably isn't very hard.

doing it at a competitive olympic speed is very difficult no doubt.

thats what some fail to understand about "easy events"

2/12/2010 11:42:05 PM

Quote :

"WHISTLER, British Columbia -- Olympic officials have decided to make some changes to the track at the Whistler Sliding Center following the death of a 21-year-old luger in a horrific training crash Friday morning. Officials from the International Luge Federation and the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee say their investigation found "no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track." They said the track would reopen Saturday morning with changes "to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again." The wall will be raised at the exit of Curve 16, the last on the course and where Nodar Kumaritashvili of the republic of Georgia lost control, went airborne and slammed into a steel pole, and other unspecified changes will be made to the ice. They called the accident "extremely exceptional," however, and said it was triggered by Kumaritashvili's failure to compensate for coming late out of the next-to-last curve, not by "deficiencies in the track." After studying the crash on video, they said, it was determined that the luger was offline coming out of Curve 15 and "did not compensate properly to make correct entrance into Curve 16." Men's lugers, who were scheduled to finish their training Friday morning, will get two extra practice runs Saturday. Women will train four hours later than scheduled. Men's competition will be held later in the day as planned. "

2/13/2010 2:39:22 AM

bttt

2/13/2010 2:28:47 PM

if you go back and watch the video as he's coming down the track they're putting up these fabric shades on the track on the stretch just before he comes to the fatal corner. those shades essentially made the track a tunnel thus preventing him from seeing the upcoming corner and timing it correctly.

this was a fail on so many levels by the track officials.

2/18/2010 6:42:35 PM

^ They adjust the shades constantly during everyone's run to prevent sunlight from hampering track conditions.

2/18/2010 6:54:25 PM

^while he is actually sliding down the track? that makes no sense at all.

2/18/2010 7:06:14 PM

They do it during every run.

2/18/2010 7:20:26 PM

so i'm sliding down the track at 140 km/h and all of sudden I could be going through a tunnel of shades that blocks my peripheral vision and throw off my sense of speed, timing, etc. No wonder he misjudged the curve and flew off the track.

2/18/2010 7:24:06 PM

i'm sure they train for it, if it occurs on every run. it seems to me that it's just part of the sport

[Edited on February 18, 2010 at 7:26 PM. Reason : a]

2/18/2010 7:26:12 PM

^^ It didn't seem to bother anyone else. Also, there are plenty of tracks in the world where the shades, although cloth, are essentially permanent in some corners.

2/18/2010 7:31:16 PM

who?

2/18/2010 7:34:34 PM

10 years ago. RIP Nodar.

4/1/2020 6:31:04 PM

Quote :

"Can't believe BubbleBobble would "k" this thread. What a chunk of human shit."

LOL

4/2/2020 1:04:03 PM

I didn't know who it was when I said it, but I can't have but so much sympathy for someone who takes enormous risks on purpose and dies doing things like this

you have the option to not put your life in danger

it doesn't make me a shitty person to say k in a thread lol

there are many other non-k related reasons that I am a shitty person

4/2/2020 1:05:35 PM