(ATR) The president of Georgia says “no athlete should die because of a sports accident.”
Mikheil Saakashvili spoke to a news conference in Vancouver the day after Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a crash while on a luge training run.
IOC, VANOC and international luge federation officials stressed Saturday that the Whistler Sliding Centre track is not too fast to be safe.
But Saakashvili said that although he is not a luge expert, “with all due respect no sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death.”
The coroner’s office of British Columbia tells Around the Rings an autopsy on Nodar Kumaritashvili will come Monday.
Jeff Dolan said the coroner’s role in the investigation into Kumaritashvili’s death “is just beginning”.
He says there are three stages to the investigation.
First is to find out what caused the death. Dolan said there is “no question that the cause of death was due to the incident”.
Next, the coroner must determine if the death was accidental.
final two runs will be Sunday.
Finally the coroner’s office will make any recommendations to prevent similar deaths, “not to say there will be any recommendations” Dolan said.
While the coroner’s act does give the coroner authority to shut down the track, Dolan said after an initial inspection “it was determined it was no longer needed to be closed”.
The form signed by Kumaritashvili as part of his entry into the Vancouver Olympics acknowledges that he accepted the risks of competing.
“I participate in the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver at my own risk and that I will take all reasonable measures to protect myself from the risks of participation,” is how the Entry/Eligibility Conditions Form reads.
Luge Grieves , VANOC Makes Changes to Track
Josef Fendt, president of FIL, the international luge federation told reporters Saturday he grieved for his sport.
“Yesterday was the worst, the saddest day in the history of the sport.”
FIL secretary general Svein Romstad said there were discussions about cancelling the men’s luge event, but that the competition will proceed, with changes
The men’s start has been moved to the lower women’s start
The track has also raised the wall where Kumaritashvili was killed and made some ice profile changes that should redirect an athlete back onto the track if he should become airborne.
The lower starting points will also lessen the amount of speed an athlete can build. Kumaritashvili’s accident occurred at Curve 16, the final curve.
“The bottom line is that the decisions made are to deal with the emotional component for the athletes to alleviate as best as possible the traumatic experience of this tragic event,” Romstad said.
He said the team captains were notified of thechanges and had no questions. .
Athletes took part in training Saturday morning in preparation for the first two runs later in the day.
TheIOC president Jacques Rogge attended the luge competition Saturday.
“We did everything in our power to make sure that track was as safe as we can,” said Tim Gayda, VANOC’s VP of Sport. “It is a fast track, there’s no denying that.”
He said more than 5,000 runs had been made on the track.
Romstad emphasized that the athletes are safe and this was the first death in 35 years in the sport. “None of our athletes have experienced what he did,” pausing to compose himself.
“They lost a friend yesterday. And it is emotional for everyone.”
The IOC is “completely satisfied” with the changes made, said spokesman Mark Adams. “We think the competition will go ahead as planned and we’re very confident it will be a very successful competition.”
Bobsled and skeleton, which use the same track but are run by a different federation, will make their own decisionabout where to start.
Preventable Crash?
Officials said Kumaritashvili had 26 runs on the Whistler track, participated in five World Cups this year and was ranked 44th in the latest World Cup standings.
The track was designed by computer and in consultation with both federations. VANOC worked “hand in glove” with the federations, said spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade.
"Ultimately, what they ask for and create is what we design, always with safety as a top priority,” she said.
Romstad said that for “lack of a better word, the crash ratio” at Whistler is “on par with other tracks.”
Asked whether hay bales or other padding should have been on the pillar that the luger hit, or any of the other pillars lining the lower part of the track, Gayda said, nothing would have helped when an athlete exits the track.
“The strategies we’ve incorporated are to keep the athletes on the track, no matter what.”
There had been speculation the Sochi track could be even faster than Whistler. Fendt said that in the future, “We have to make sure the tracks do not go beyond 140 kph.”
Condolences for Kumaritashvili
John Furlong, the VANOC CEO, met with the Georgian team at Whistler on Friday to personally express his condolences.
Shaakashvilli said a new luge track would be built in honor of Kumaritashvili in his hometown of Borjomi, where Soviet winter athletes used to train.
The Georgian president extended his thanks for the outpouring of condolences following the crash.
“I am incredibly grateful to everybody here in Canada. I have heard lots of things about Canadian ways, Canadian way of being compassionate, well we’ve seen it and experienced it first hand. People have been incredibly kind, supportive. That really counts.
“This spirit of humanity is maybe the biggest thing you can take away from the Olympics, more than maybe the medals,” said Shaakashvilli.
Written by Karen Rosen and Ed Hula.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
