The Winter Olympics are all set to kick off in Vancouver tonight, but the opening ceremony has been overshadowed by the tragic death of Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili.
The 21-year-old Luge competitor passed away after losing control of his sled during a training run. Doubts had already been cast over the safety of the luge track, many athletes had struggled during training runs, and it seems that an accident was inevitable.
Even if they change the track, and improve its safety, it would be terribly disrepectful to Kumaritashivili, his family and the Georgian team, to hold the men's luge event.
Clearly any sport in which you throw yourself head first down an ice track at 150kph with little to hold onto but a small sheet of metal is always going to be dangerous, but the signs point to the fact that this tragic accident could have been prevented. The track was deemed far too fast by experts, so why did it get the go-ahead.
The games have already struggled to hit the ground running, with protests from all sides, injuries to games top stars like American Skiier Lindsay Vonn. This tragedy is likely to take all the headlines, and the Vancouver games will struggle to recover from such a terrible beginning.
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