Olympic Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili Killed; Crash VIDEO Pulled From YouTube
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
A luger scheduled to compete in this year’s Winter Olympics was killed in a crash just hours before tonight’s opening ceremony in Vancouver, The Associated Press has learned.
Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old hopeful from the Republic of Georgia, lost control of his sled, went over a track wall, and struck an unpadded steel pole at high-speed during a training run at Whistler Sliding Center
early Friday. The young athlete was taken to hospital with blood pouring from a head wound after trackside emergency treatment, but doctors were unable to save his life. Video that showed Kumaritashvili flying out of his luge and slamming into the pole at nearly 90 mph has been removed from YouTube and is quickly disappearing from other video sharing sites around the Web.
Olympic competition in Men’s Luge is scheduled to begin Saturday, but questions about the track’s safety plague the aspiring medalists.
Written by Castina on February 12th, 2010 | Tagged as: 2010 Winter Olympics,Popular Culture,Sports Celebs
On February 12th 2010, Sphurthy wrote:
Very sad !! hope the safety standards will be increased
On February 12th 2010, Castina wrote:
It's just awful….
On February 13th 2010, Mel wrote:
Omg! that's terrible. very sad to hear. hopefully they will increase the safety standards, accidents like that shouldn't happen.
On February 13th 2010, Mike wrote:
It is awful what every happen in sound never happen
On February 14th 2010, sarah wrote:
this is just sooo sad to hear but god bless his soul