I'll be watching also, although I'm afraid the opening ceremonies may pale in comparison to what China was able to pull off. I like all the events that involve speed, not so crazy about anything that involves judges.
My friend who is in Kelowna, BC said they are bringing in snow for the olympics, Vancouver has been crazy warm / mild.
http://www.torontosun.com/sports/vancouver2010/news/2010/02/12/12857041-qmi.html The training mishap that killed an Olympic luger Friday was reportedly his second crash in as many days at the dangerously-fast Whistler sliding centre. Amid mounting safety concerns over the speed lugers have been reacing on the track — there have been more than a dozen crashes during training this week — Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old from Georgia, died after flipping off his sled and into a metal pole. He was approaching a final 270-degree turn, and going at speeds estimated to be 140 kilometres per hour, when he lost control. Emergency crews were performing CPR on the athlete, a native of Borjomi, Georgia. Kumaritashvili competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the overall standings. He reportedly crashed while training earlier this week, walking away rattled but not seriously hurt. His deadly crash was the second nasty incident Friday. The first occurred when defending Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy lost control. A member of the Romanian women’s team was also hurt in a crash this week and airlifted from the site. The $105-million sliding centre, on Blackcomb Mountain’s southeast side, has 16 turns and drops steeply for 152 metres — the world’s longest drop.
I usually watch very little NHL hockey as I find it boring, but olympic hockey ROCKS, don't miss it!!! GO CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no kidding. That's just terrible. I'm surprised they would even have columns uncushioned that close to the track. Not sure if it would have helped going 80mph, but i'm sure they will be protected now.
I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. It just remind me of some stupid twist and turn water slide that I see people almost flying right out of the slide.
He was going 140 kph (87 mph), he had already crashed before as well, plus there had been over a dozen wipeouts already in the training sessions, sounds like a dangerous track. What makes it worse is that the Canadians were not allowing other athletes to try the track (before the practise session) to maintain 'home court advantage', not very smart IMO.
<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9410364&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9410364&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/9410364">Nodar Kumaritashvili Luge Crash at 2010 Winter Games 2-12-2010</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user602522">Tom Walker</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Whoever design that track is in trouble. That leave pretty much no room for a mistake or you're a goner on that track. A track like that should NEVER have any shape angle. Don't any of this people take physics to allow to create these kind of tracks?
Why do they not have it designed where you would at least slide. How about a cover for the poles to make it a wall?
They are barely even mentioning this on ESPN. If he was from the US you better believe there would be a lot of coverage.
Luging seems like a sport that only exists as an Olympic event. Tragic story in any case. Seems like this event has been handled poorly from the start. I love Vancouver but there's already lots of drama before it even started. I hope it doesn't take a knock after all is said and done. There's been a lot of internal conflict in the city about the Olympics over the past few years. And I admit I'm really fascinated by curling for some reason.
