Athletes Accept Risk; Luging Death Arguments are Ridiculous

The death of Nodar Kumaritashvili the day of the Vancouver Winter Olympics opening ceremony was both tragic and horrifying.  Don’t miss understand anything I write in this article.  I feel for the small nation of Georgia and for all the luge athletes who compete with him.  However, I do have a big problem with the Republic of Georgia and how they are handling the situation.

After Nodar’s wreck, the country made a huge deal about the track and how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was at fault for his death.  The claimed that the track was unsafe, too fast and should not have been used.

Most of the comments came from the Republic of Georgia president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who was seemingly infuriated with the safety of the track.  My favorite comment he made was that “no sports mistake is supposed to lead to death.”

First off, this is the president of the nation.  Doesn’t he have better things to be doing other than wasting time arguing with the Olympic Committee?  Secondly, what is he talking about!?  People die is sports from mistakes ALL THE TIME.  Maybe in your country, where competitive sports must not take place, people dying in sport are not an uncommon thing.  The simplest case that comes to mind is the death of Dale Earnhardt.  Did you hear the president coming out and spending time yelling at NASCAR about how unsafe the sport is?

Listen, the sport is luging! You are sitting on a tiny sled, flying down the ice track at 70 miles per hour.  Did you think this sport is safe?  As a football player, I consciously made the decision to risk my life every play for a game I loved.  If I am a luger, or the family of a luger, do I think that there is no inherent risk of being seriously hurt?  The mere concept of this is ridiculous.

Other athletes have come out with concerns about the track.  One of my favorite comments was from Australian luger Hannah Campbell-Pegg who said, “They are pushing it a little too much.  To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we’re crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives.”

This really irritates me.  NO ONE IS THROWING YOU DOWN A TRACK!!  You make a conscious decision to go down the track if you want to.  Nobody is holding a gun to your head and saying luge or die!  If you are so concerned for your life, don’t luge.  That is your option.  In fact, if you can’t handle the course, then maybe you shouldn’t be considered an elite athlete competing at the Olympics.  This quote and concept would kill luging.  Why don’t we make the track nicer so that everyone can finish perfectly?  Doesn’t that sound terrific?  Hannah, if you want an easier competition, then maybe you should change sports.

German skeleton racer Anja Huber said, “They don’t understand that they’re playing with our lives.”

Again, who are they?  Where did this false sense that some outside person is controlling your life?  Who is forcing you to race?  This is the Olympics.  It is a competition for the best athletes in the world.  The track needs to be difficult, challenging and fast.  In a sport where medals come down to hundredths of a second, the course can’t aid in leveling the playing field.

I agree with the German engineer who designed and built the track, Udo Gurgel, who defended his course.  He said, “The track is not dangerous.  The track is safe.  The track is just fast.  It is only when one defines fast as dangerous that it becomes dangerous.  The fatal accident was a chain of unfortunate circumstances.”

This is the perfect explanation.  Over 5,000 runs have been made with only one serious incident.  The course may be scary fast, but it is obviously not a killer.  Here is my advice.  If you aren’t good enough to handle the highest level of competition, don’t do it.  If I could step on the field with professional football players and was allowed to play, do you not think that I would get absolutely obliterated?  Players train to become the best they can be, and only a certain number actually become elite in the things they do.  An athlete must accept the inevitable that they just might not be that good.

If I was the family of Kumaritashvili, I would feel ashamed at how the country of Georgia has treated this accident.  All of sudden this “no name” country with nothing to offer the world is jumping all over its “five minutes of fame” and annoying the world.  Georgia, constantly complaining to the world about your one athlete is not going to make you any better.  Kumaritashvili had a tragic accident and Georgia should accept that.  Instead of whining, why don’t you make him, and your nationality, look better with the truth in one simple statement: Our luger knew the risks in pursuing a dangerous sport, but put the fear past him to do what he loved.  He will be missed and remembered.

Instead, Georgia made such a big deal about the whole issue that the IOC made all of the men start from the women’s starting line.  Although it did not slow the top speeds of the athletes, it did shorten the track by over a football field.  Many of the elite athletes where irritated, saying that it levels the playing field, changed their training and hindered their overall performance.  It’s funny that some athletes wanted it more challenging while others are scared.  I’ll bet you anything that the athletes afraid of the track will not win medals.  The true elite athletes who love to luge and race the most challenging race will emerge the victors.

Again, this was a tragedy and an unfortunate circumstance.  But pretending that the wreck was the “track’s fault” is completely ridiculous.  If my country was making excuses and causing issues, I would be ashamed.  Every athlete accepts the fact that they could die playing in extreme and dangerous sports.  Pretending that luge is not dangerous is ignorant and distasteful.  The Republic of Georgia should issue an apology.

Tags: Anja Huber, athletes accept the risk, Georgia President, Hannah Campbell-Pegg, Luge, Luging, Luging death, Mikheil Saakashvili, Nodar Kumaritashvili, OIC, olympics, Republic of Georgia, sport accidents, Udo Gurgel, Vancouver Olympics