Quote:
Originally Posted by camisadelgolf
He had a helmet and very light padding. I haven't been paying much attention to the incident, but initially, I heard a lot of people blame it on human error. Really? How do you know blame the course? I read that, relatively, the course was much faster than the other ones. I hope everyone moves on from this quickly with the event having as little affect on everyone involved as possible, but it's clear to me that this will need to have a change on future luging events.
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I consider myself a pretty advanced skiier. I can ski pretty much anything, anywhere. Although I don't venture over to the cliffs, don't really want to chance it jumping off rocks. Once a year we venture out to the Vail area to ski and we usually ski a couple of days at Beaver Creek. If you don't know, Beaver Creek host a mens world cup downhill run. I have skiied the run a handful of times after it is deemed ready for the general public. Even at that point it is very icy and if you don't pay complete attention to the hill your likely to end up on you butt. This is just skiing at your own pace, not bombing it down the hill like Olympians.
I have also skiied the 2002 slalom course at Deer Valley. Spent the majority of the steeper hill sliding down on my back. Talked to a ski patrol guy at the bottom and he said the ice it down ever more for the competition.
I guess my point is that these guys aren't your average athletes. These guys are the best of the best. They shouldn't be on the course if they aren't qualified. They also know the risk that is involved in these sports. If they are scared or fearful they shouldn't be on the hill/course. They Olympics have set standards so there are no more Eddie the Eagle scenes. It is a sad scene, but after hearing what the Gerogian luger said to his father makes me question whether or not he should have been on the course in the first place.