Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Calgary Herald;
One can blame Furlong. Since the release of the e-mails, Furlong has struggled to split hairs by saying that while Vanoc knew the track was too fast, it didn’t know it was dangerous.
One could blame the International Luge Federation. This week, it passed the buck by saying it didn’t know the speeds were too high until the track was in operation and it was too late for any changes. But it altered the track in Turin one year before the 2006 Olympic Games because of too many accidents on a track that was too fast.
One could blame the track designer. The designer for the Whistler luge track also designed the too-fast Turin track. He has also designed the track for the 2014 Sochi Olympic luge event. Given his track record (literally) at Turin and Whistler, one would think that it’s time to find a new track designer -or at least buy this one a new calculator.
One could even blame Ku-maritashvili himself.
Via David Thompson;
VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.
That was INSANE!
A man, a bike, and a death wish. What could possibly go wrong?
That looks like it’d be a thousand times more fun than what has been passing here for sports lately.
Probably best to ban that sort of thing here, before it catches on.
Kate, you are so right. Liberals are looking for someone to ‘blame’: More rules, more sanctions, less personal responsibility. And working people will pay for it. Excellent juxtaposition.
Now, where is this course, and where can I sign up?!
The dog obstacle was a great add!
But I don’t agree with the analogy.
Luge is much faster, with less control, and virtually no brakes. The luger (is that what we call them?) is very much dependant on track design to help with his limited control in the turns and exits.
Besides it wasn’t so much the design and speed, as was the fact that it had an open wall section out of turn, with unpadded steel supports. There was nothing to keep the luger on/in the track if they got tossed out of the turn.
JMHO
theredsuit:
the moral of the story is, be a good luger. Don’t get tossed out of the turn.
People that want to hold “get togethers” to show old cars, or raise funds for something or other need to get insurance to use publicly available parking lots here.
Somehow I doubt that those skimming funds off the top in the name of insurance for officially sanctioned events, will ever allow this sort of thing.
Mike in Calgary, It’s in Valparisio, Chile, (near Santiago). I’d love to do that too…
http://mountain.bike198.com/insane-urban-dh-mountain-bike/
Wow, what a ride.
I bet first prize was a taco.
I sprained my neck just watching that.
Holy Crap! Only thing missing was someone opening a door in front of him. Hope the riders have the Chilean version of Obambam health care.
The pussification trend is unfortunate and undeniable, however I think the response to the luge accident is an example of something else: failure to hold employees accountable for their actions. No nerf luge tracks are being designed because of the whistler accident.
I’m not suggesting throwing some construction crew in the gulag for 25 years, but someone is responsible for leaving those steel supports unpadded. I’m pretty sure it’s not the architect.
While we’re on the subject of olympics, I wonder if the women’s hockey advocates will demand seatbelts to retain a crowd at Sochi?
The surprised pooch made me laugh – poor dog.
After seeing the footage I’d advocate going the Rosie Ruiz route.
And another thing – not enough towns are built on the side of hills like that.
There have been thousands of runs down the Whistler track, the athletes love it because it is fast.
The kid who had the accident had run the track successfully numerous times.
Sometimes, accidents happen.
I want to do it -uphill- on my motorcycle. That’d make a wild hill-climb. Down hill, that’s freakin’ scary stuff kids.
Check out some of the other videos, there’s some wicked mountain descents in there.
And you know, luge is supposed to be one guy on a sled hauling @$$ down the ungroomed mountain trying to find the best line, just like these biker kids. Its not meant to be a mail tube as they do in the Olympics, with all the times within three tenths of a second.
But if you’re going to make a mail tube, what kind of idiot leaves a stanchion standing beside the fastest curve in the track? That’s like leaving one concrete post halfway down a drag strip. Its stupid.
I never knew I could hold my breath for four minutes… and the pucker factor, well let’s not go there.
By the People For the People. The Olympics, not so much.
I thought the investigation already found that it was his own fault. The luger made a mistake on that curve. Sometimes, feces happens.
Mike,
“Be a good luger” Really? That’s a pretty ignorant statement considering we’re talking about an Olympic athlete.
Building a safe track doesn’t mean it has to be slow.
so was the changoman doing 150 clicks?
wtf is the comparison here?
only some condescending snot would attribute the vancouver thing to misplaced blame.
We have an Olympic Luge training site close to our town. Once a year they let folks give them a try on a short piece of straight track. What a blast!
!My balls hurt!!!
Like skiing, but with more death! (I just hope the doggie was okay.)
Fred at 2:35 — exactly and thank you.
As for that bike race — Wow! I think my brakes would have worn out before I finished.
Anybody who remembers the female luge and bobsled “competitions” at Whistler has seen the literal pussification of sport.
They started at the juniors start point well down the run IIRC, the push-off was negated by immediately hitting the opposite wall and slowing forward progress to near zero, world-class non-competition. Competitors should have been required to “compete” with a baby’s soother in their mouth.
No blame attached to female lugers this was an Olympic decision-I guess faster, higher, stronger was forgotten for politically correct reasons (Europeans screwing Canada, the womens team were just too strong and would have creamed the Urinepaeons)
Luge is basically a stupid activity with little audience appeal. It should be reformed into something less forgiving that requires greater skill. Having the rider still on his back but riding head first and viewing the slide through a periscope helmet should be exciting and full of tension.
Whew!!! I’ve got muscle cramps and feelings of guilt for being so stupid as to involve myself with this ride. That’s what I call seriously nuts. Steel posts and telephone poles, concrete walls and cars for backstops.
The guy that bought it at the Olympics was the only crash ever at that spot and now we want to blame somebody? If there is blame and I’m not laying it, it was the guy that hit the corner way, way too fast. They said it at the time that he was letting it all hang out and he didn’t make it. Too bad and the world is a poorer place for his passing.
I like the patronizing lefty at the end of the video talking to the little brown person.
What it must feel like to have them in your face like that, yet know that it is they that give the handouts of other peoples endeavours. Of course providing you let them belittle you while you pretend to kiss their behinds in return.
By the by the guy chickened out going through the cement tunnel, if he was “really good” he’d have found a way, and did anyone else notice the purplish gay handlebars on his bike? Just saying.
“…purplish gay handlebars…”
The man who survives el biko rido de lo muerte can have sparkle-coloured hello kitty handlebars if he wants. I’m pretty sure the guy at the end was Larry David.
@ Black Mamba: “The man who survives el biko rido de lo muerte can have sparkle-coloured hello kitty handlebars if he wants.”
made me spit my beer all over the keyboard…
Maybe we can refine luge to just sliding a bunny hill in a straight line. One day we’ll all be so safe we don’t even have to be alive.
Sheesh. The luger who died at Vanoc made the Olympics on a wing and a prayer. He was tryingfor a run fast enough to qualify to race against the best lugers. He needed a much faster time than he had ever done. All the lugers who talked about his run said he was going into that corner WAY too fast.
Good lugers know their limits. They know the course. Just like any fast sports. You don’t ski down a mountain with skis pointed south and hope for the best. This is essentially what the luger did and then did not have the skills to figure out this wasn’t the best choice.
Just like Eddie the Eagle at Calgary 88 – you get athletes qualifying because they invite certain countries to fill spots. They don’t even have to meet minimum time standards. Stupid.
Luge and IOC to blame for their dumb arse qualifying standards.
Luge to blame for not making every aspect of the track safe. (As a swim ref it is my responsibility to make the deck area and pool safe for the swimmers – at large meets it’s the ref and the overseeing group)
And sadly the luger himself has to take some responsibility. it’s just horrible he had to give his life for that mistake.
It looked to me the luge guy nailed a post, which seemed to be in a really bad spot. Besides, they pretty well admitted responsibility by modifying the course, as soon as the guy died. It’s all about liability, and we might never know how much this costs the games host.
The guy on the bike in Chile can’t sue anyone, if he takes a spill. They don’t do that in Chile. It isn’t the athletes who are “pussified”, it’s the people who sponsor the events. They’ve been so badly stung by high insurance rates, and threats of lawsuits, they can’t afford to keep events as exciting as they’d like to. That’s why the UFC had so much trouble getting approved, and why Muay Thai events have modified rules in Canada. We all know you sports fans are hoping to see someone lose an eye, or have his arm broken, but with our legal system, it just isn’t affordable.
Some twenty somthing Gal in North Van ran herself under a vehicle and bought it last year.
She loved skateboarding and the general concensus seemed to be that she died doing what she loved.
I recall the same being said about a young snow boarder at Whistler a few years back.
So did the young athelete at the 2010 games die in vain or go out in a blaze of glory as to his own standards?
This run down the urban mountain in the video effectively captures the real essence of a dare…if any aren’t too pussified to remember what one of those were. You know,”I DARE YOU” …”NO WAY,I DOUBLE DARE YOU!” etc
The true spirit of challenge without a safety net is in fact the essence of the pioneering spirit.
Its what got man up in the first airplane…what got us to the moon etc.
The Williams Lake Stampede has run for about eighty years now. They used to hold the annual mountain horse race up until the 1960’s then quit as it was very dangerous (at least one rider died in the 30’s). No safety gear then as the modern cowboy has non today.
The point is that they didn’t seek blame then, nor shut it down when he died but continued it for many more years after.
Before I run on too long here, I’ll just say that that bike run was exciting…I was on the edge of my seat feeling the whole thing like I was right there with him. In fact it WAS a Rush!
Something I don’t get from watching overly safety concious state run events.
Oh and by the by…perhaps on should think of the pooch as the unexpected hazard such as the steel post at the luge run was.
An unexpected challenge to really test one’s self upon!
“…sparkle-colored hello kitty handlebars if he wants…”
Black Mamba is an evile genius.
old duffer, I’ve seen a thousand wannabes like you, over the years. The only reason I put up with you, is you pay the admission. The only time I slipped up was when I was an athlete 30 years ago. I was being helped out of the ring, with a badly broken nose, and a couple of old fools made a smart-ass remark. I pulled away from my coach, and jumped a few chairs. They got way more excitement than they’d bargained for. It was my only really bad treatment of fans, but my total disdain for goulish sports fans has never really gone away.
That bike race was fantastic to watch; makes me want to take up mountain biking (as soon as I get over the shock at the price of a good quality bike). In a way I’m glad we didn’t have mountain bikes when I was young and stupid as something like this would have been the thing to do on a dare. I’m just curious what happened to the guys who didn’t make the jumps or wiped out on the way down.
There is NEVER an excuse for a racer(in any sport) to fly off the track and hit an immovable object(like a post) If you look at car racing like Nascar or Indy cars the tracks are like chainlink tunnels to prevent cars from leaving the track either killing the drivers or spectators. Had the Whistler luge been protected in such a manner the luger may have incurred injuries but certainly would still be alive. Downhill skiing has snow fence to prevent skiers hitting trees .
Little harsh, coach, no? By your own admission you’re lucky the thumbs were sticking up. Live by the sword, gladiator, die by it.
Meh, I used to do that going to class at SAIT, short cuts across guys lawn, beat it across 16th ave NW, then cut through the Sears parking lot, then race the ctrain till hitting the sidewalk by the classroom building and do a Front End wheelie to impress all the girls who’d I hope was watching.
None.
🙂
theredsuit said, “The luger (is that what we call them?” (comment 1:22)
Remember, it’s better to be the luger than the lugee! OK, I’ll stop now.
On a more serious note though, wouldn’t it just be simpler to have all of the lugers sign a waiver?
A waiver saying they understand that luge is inherently dangerous and potentially fatal and that with that understanding they still opt to participate and by so doing voluntarily waive any right for themselves, their families, etc to ever sue.
I don’t think it’s just those cry-baby liberals here. I smell LAWYERS!!!
Oh, Kate, I took the liberty of embedding that video, with credit to Vimeo via DT and SDA of course. It was just too good to pass up.