Posted on 02/14/2010 12:58:03 PM PST by fuzzybutt
BAKURIANI, Georgia—The young Georgian luger who died in a horrific training accident hours before the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday told his father he was terrified of the track before doing the run that killed him.
"He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, 'Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns,' " David Kumaritashvili said in an interview at his house in the small mountain town of Bakuriani on Sunday.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
First you have to determine if it’s reasonable fear or not. If it is, then by all means, avoid the action and you are right.
Many of us have unreasonable fears concerning some matters. Those unreasonable fears can cause us to put up walls or slam on the brakes when we shouldn’t.
Sadly, this wasn’t one of those cases. He had reasoned fear, and I’m sorry he didn’t listen to it.
self fulfilling phrophesy
Terribly sad.
Luge racing is a form of High Risk Behavior
The Rule of Thumb in High Risk Behavior is,
if you are Afraid of what you are Doing - Don’t
Motorcycling and Sky Diving are similar in this respect
Fear binds your Thought and Reactions
You must be Fearless and Cautious at the Same Time
Someone posted a paper on Friday night in a FR thread on the accident that was published by the company who built the track or by the IOS and how proud they were that they left such a small footprint on the environment which ultimately made it so dangerous because they built the steel pillars too close to the track. I neglected to grab it; can anyone repost or ping me with it? Thanks.
Hate to be cynical in the wake of this young man’s death, but dad may by setting the table for a lawsuit against the IOC.
And if he thought it was too dangerous, why is it he elected to race down the track?
Lets get real, everyone doing the luge takes their life into their hands every time they go down the run. It is an inherently dangerous and DEADLY “sport”. That said, the idiots who put up a line of OPEN, UNWALLED, UNSHEILDED STEEL GIRDERS just 3 feet or so off the side of the track after a dangerously tight turn should go to jail... talk about lack of foresight!
If the kid wanted safety in his sport, he should have entered the curling competition.
But one thing about the luge, it is defiantly not a ghetto sport.
The young man supposedly had at least six trial runs down that same track immediately preceding the practice run.
He had slid down that track about twenty times in all.
It’s no crime to withdraw and he should have done so rather than whine to his father who was thousands of miles away and unable to make a judgement on his behalf.
The father was a luger for the Soviets, long time ago.
A “lip” on both sides of the track, where appropriate, would do wonders for eliminating luge riders from being catapulted off the track by “g” forces.
Want to eliminate the possibility of fatalities like the latest luger? Enclose the track in a tube, where appropriate.
I wonder how much is collectively spent on luge and bobsled per Olympic run. I have no idea what a bobsled track costs, but I'm sure it's more than a few million. I think it's a cool sport. I just wonder where all the money comes from. It's not like there's a big fan base to support sponsors products. Or is there?
LOL, the fear IS the reason for taking part in activities such as this, or sky diving, or bungee-jumping. It is the fear that brings out the thrill of the adrenalin rush, which these people crave. If they felt it the same way as walking in a park, they wouldn’t do it.
Thrill can be addictive, and it is this nature of some people to seek more and more of it, that drives them to push the envelopes further and further.
I remember decades ago watching the ski jumpers in one of the events, a day when they had severe crosswinds, overcast and snow in the air, so they couldn't see the landing. (I used to snowmobile and when it's overcast like that you just can't see the contrast, the bumps in the trail, so you have to slow way down, unless you're crazy).
Anyway, the first several jumpers lost it and crashed in a heap like a rag doll. What must go through the next jumper's mind when he sees the first few jumpers carted off on a backboard? But yet, down the ramp they went. That takes a lotta nerve.
Yes. When you have confidence you are alert to the potential for danger and do your best to make sure it doesn’t happen.
I don't think he was alone in his fear about the track.
Instead of saying nothing, all of the lugers should have got together and said “We're not going down that track until some changes are made”.
So many people voiced concern about the track. Three crashed in the same spot in two days.
They changed it only after Nodar died.
I thought I actually saw tube encasements on luge courses in certain turn areas, in the past.
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