Vancouver Olympics tragedy, georgian luger died in training crash

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games were shadowed by a tragedy. The Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died after a training-run accident at the Whistler Sliding Center. The georgian athlete was on the last corner of the course when he was suddenly thrown off the track and smashed into the structure posts. He died later at the hospital due to severe injuries. Due to Whistler track design, any small mistake can turn out fatal. At the last training session before the tragedy, 9 athletes out of 15 underwent failures by falling or rolling over. Among them also the Romanian woman Violeta Stramaturaru who got shortly unconscious after hitting her head and later the team decided to pull her out of contest. Whlistler Sliding Center is the world's fastest circuit built on the idea to have more spectacular races. If at Torino's Cesana Pariol center a luge can reach 120-130 km/h, at Whisler the speed can top up to 150 km/h. The olympics organizers announced that at the moment of the crash, Kumaritashvili was running 144.5 km/h. For many specialists the Whistler track is a big mistake just because of the rapidity. At too high speeds the athlet can not work on his technique which is the most important aspect during the luge contest. The photos show sequencies during and after the luge crash.
The video footage shows Nodar Kumaritashvili's last moments of his life shortly before the fatal crash at Whistler luge track.

Also video Nodar Kumaritashvili full luge race and tragic crash.