Everyone glued to the Olympics who watched the 21-year-old luge athlete tragically die on a practice run last Friday, has been asking, “is the luge becoming too dangerous?” Nodar’s body has been returned to his home country of Georgia where he was laid to rest on Saturday.
According to The Baltimore Sun, this incident still has everyone wondering what went wrong. This great athlete apparently took the last turn so fast that he lost control of his sled and hit a pole at 90 mph, dying instantly. The Olympic officials made some huge changes to the men and women’s luge course by shortening the men’s to the women’s starting point then shortening the women’s starting point to the junior starting point. This they hope will help avoid lugers from speeding up to dangerous speeds such as 95 mph. Walls were also built higher to protect lugers from flying out of the tunnel.
Olympic officials had pointed the finger at the athlete saying he took the turn too fast and did not try to slow himself down.
The father angrily returned comment.”He mustn’t be blamed,” the 46-year-old father, a Soviet-era luger, told The Associated Press. “He was thrown out, but why had they failed to build a protective barrier for such a case?”
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