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Olympic athlete dies....

It's sad but itks a sport that carries that sort of risk, and going by report he made a mistake in turn 15 and entered turn 16 wrong and tried to correct but it was to late by then, I'm sorry but I toatally disagree with opinions to ban it because of this, we might as well ban all sports that involve high speed or physical contact.
Every athlete that takes part in his/her sport fully understands the risks involved, and they still do it with a passion, as I said it's a very sad thing to happen but high risk sport have are hugh risk for a reason.
The rush after doing a successful luge, toboggan, ski jump, downhill, super g run must be amazing, all carry great risks and all in which poeple have died
 
No I Don't think it should be banned it is just ridiculous that people keep built this track to push the limit more and more just to get the $$$ I heard this is the fastest track at 95mph
 
Fastest track at whatever speed, can you see the not see the rush from getting down any luge track safe? Now that is a drug, danger is the biggest rush to a human, danger is the one that gets the good (natural) drugs pumping us mere mortals can watch on and only imagine the rush!!
 
Semi-hypothetical question here-

How do you think the downhill ski runs of today compare to the downhill ski runs of 30 years ago? How well do you think a skier of 30 years ago would compete in today's downhills if they were "magically transported through time" from then to now? Do you think skiers of yesteryear would even stand a chance on one of today's courses against today's conditioned athletes and precision equipment?

As sports evolve, it's always pushing the envelope. Once one challenge has been conquered, another challenge has to be created. Once a figure skater did a single jump-spin, the challenge goes to 1 1/2, then 2, now it's a triple! An there's probably a figure skater out there trying for a quad.

I'm not making any judgement about the safety of the course or an unpadded or unfenced object. I have not seen the video. But I don't think the Olympic Design crew should be faulted for raising the bar in designing the FASTEST and HARDEST course they could! That's what it's about, raising the bar....literally!

I'm not going to google it because I know what the answer would reflect, What is the world record high jump in 1956.......what is the world high jump record NOW?


A downhill trick skier who makes a mistake will snap their neck just as easily as this young man died.
 
Davetaylor said:
It's sad but itks a sport that carries that sort of risk, and going by report he made a mistake in turn 15 and entered turn 16 wrong and tried to correct but it was to late by then, I'm sorry but I toatally disagree with opinions to ban it because of this, we might as well ban all sports that involve high speed or physical contact.
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I disagree. An athlete should not have to die because he makes a mistake, especially when it is so easy to prevent as it should have been in this case. The people who constructed this track can come up with all the excuses they can think of, but the fact is that they had a brainfart that killed a young man.
 
MrArboc,
I respectfully say again, a downhill trick skier can die just as easy or easier than this young luger. And even if the I-beams were padded, the athlete could have died anyway going at 95mph on ice!

Is there any way to construct a SAFE trick ski jump? Once the skier leaves the jump, it's up to the skier whether they live or die.
 
paulky_2000 said:
Padded beams wouldn't have helped....

Lexan walls to enclose the track?......he'd still be alive.
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He'd probably/maybe still be alive. A body hurdling across a hard surface at +90mph....anything could happen.....


a tragedy no matter how it happened ...
 
salsalady said:
MrArboc,
Is there any way to construct a SAFE trick ski jump? Once the skier leaves the jump, it's up to the skier whether they live or die.
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totally agree. I think people just look for something to blame. If a hockey player died then there would be something wrong with the boards, if a cross country skier fell off the side of a mountain then they should have had fences along the whole 100 km track, if a ski jumper lands on his/her head and snaps their neck then I guess the jump was too high or the snow wasn't fluffy enough for the landing.

It's easy to look at it after the fact and say, if there was a net or 10 foot walls, then the luge accident wouldn't have happened. How do you accommodate for every potential accident?

it's definitely awful and I know everyone just wants to ensure it doesn't happen again to anyone, but there are a lot of dangerous situations in all of the sports going on right now. hopefully we won't see any more tragedy.
 
Generally doesn't help to be afraid of what you are going to do next, makes the brain do funny things.
 
Novacastrian said:
Generally doesn't help to be afraid of what you are going to do next, makes the brain do funny things.
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Yep. he was jsut trying to make his parents proud and that was the last thing he told them. I always thought they should put walls up at the end of turns. There is a lip on the turns the I saw a luger hit last night why not out of a turn:crazy:. Just a shame he had to die.
 
I like Paul's idea, enclose the track in Lexan. I mean they spent 100 million on the track, whats another mill.
 
Novacastrian said:
I like Paul's idea, enclose the track in Lexan. I mean they spent 100 million on the track, whats another mill.
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are they going to enclose every track....skiing, skating etc...have a net for the ski jumpers to land on just to be safe?? replace the hockey boards with cushions? the guy made a mistake and unfortunately it had a horrible ending, but if you want to eliminate danger from the olympics or any high intensity sport, then cancel them. You can't enclose every square inch of danger with Lexan.
 
I have to say I agree with Balls, there are many dangerous and high risk sports there is no way you can make them totally safe and even if you think you have some freaky accident will happen to make you think again, athletes do theses sports not because they are easy but because of the rush that they achieve by completing them safe, they all know the risks involved.

Just ask skydiver why he jumps out of planes when people have been killed doing it, hell why get on a plane because they crash.

Yes it's a sad time when one gets killed in sport but that is one of the risks when you play hard
 
It is very sad that this young guy died doing a sport that he obviously loved.. there were millions of dollars pumped into the design of this track though and to be honest, it seems a shame to waste all that engineering.. yes, its a risky sport.. yes, its a terrible shame someone died.. but now with the modifications made (men starting from the womens line, women starting on the junior line)... do you really think these athletes have the opportunity to truly display their talent? On the other hand, without the modifications we could be witnessing another fatal accident and blame would be pointed in all different sorts of directions..

you know there's a risk.. thats part of the thrill.. RIP
 
Ballzworth said:
are they going to enclose every track....skiing, skating etc...have a net for the ski jumpers to land on just to be safe?? replace the hockey boards with cushions? the guy made a mistake and unfortunately it had a horrible ending, but if you want to eliminate danger from the olympics or any high intensity sport, then cancel them. You can't enclose every square inch of danger with Lexan.
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I know what you are saying and i agree, the fact remains that this was built as a showcase. A deadly one at that.
Why not encase it so it can last forever? On the same note why don't we let our own children have a taste of glory in a smaller, slower track. Without safeguards in place.
 
the olympics is about showing the best of the best.. if you dont push the limits how do you know what is best?

EDIT: I do agree that it should be within reason though, if you know its going to endanger a life then of course all precautions should be made
 
mel said:
the olympics is about showing the best of the best.. if you dont push the limits how do you know what is best?
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You shouldn't have to die because you cross the limit. They now built a wall where the accident happened, they are reducing the risk as much as possible - just as they also do in skiing, biathlon, hockey, skijumping, cycling, boxing, MMA etc.

People who say that he pretty much deserved to die because he made ONE mistake scares me, how do you function? (Not talking about you now mel). Especially now that we know that the protective wall could be/WAS put up in just a few hours and probably cost less than $1000...

Over and out.
 
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