Big Frick Dot Com

I am truly not the heartless a-hole that many will presume from this next statement, but:

 

Enough already with Nodar Kumaritashvili.

 

Nodar Kumaritashvili is the Georgian luger that tragically lost his life on a practice run in this year’s Winter Olympics. He was only 21 years old when his single man sled lost control on the very fast luge course causing him to leave the track, his body slamming into an unprotected metal pole. It is estimated that he was going about 90 mph at the time of the accident.

 

It is the greatest tragedy in sports when a competitor makes just a slight mistake and pays the ultimate price. It is horribly sad that it happened and it will indeed be a dark cloud over these Olympic Games. Kumaritashvili was remembered during the opening ceremony, as it should be, and will be remembered and memorialized by the athletes in his and other fields of sport for many years to come.

 

Out of supposed respect, NBC has committed to not showing the videos of Kumaritashvili’s fatal run for as long as the games are in progress. But that doesn’t mean they won’t bring it up every chance they get. Every interview and every report of every event has an NBC reporter desperately searching for some segway to bring up the tragic death of this young Georgian athlete “Here we are at the speed skating rink where the ice is perfect and the times should be fast, but not as fast as that luge course where young Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed……” It has gone from the point of being disrespectfully repetitive to being downright insultingly abusive.

 

Every possible talking head has been brought in to put their two cents into the debate. Is the course to steep? Is the track too fast? Is the turn banked too much? Is the turn banked too little? Do the participants know what they are getting themselves into? Was Kumaritashvili experienced enough to be at this level of competition? And on and on and on.

 

One coach was quoted as saying that sport should not mean getting killed by making a small mistake. The truth is that in many of the extreme sports, particularly those that involve high speed and superhuman reflexes, that outcome is always a possibility.

 

Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed at a part of the track that is not particularly challenging. There was no retaining wall there because, at this level, lugers would not be expected to make the kind of mistake that Kumaritashvili made. But rather than holding the poor victim to his rightful responsibility for not being able to navigate a course designed for the world’s most elite, the blame immediately turns to the design of the course and to those who designed and maintained it.

 

Most mortals understand that they have limits. Common sense or abject fear drives us to limit our thrill seeking to things we are fairly sure won’t kill us. Most athletes are somehow able to overcome that fear and press on to do remarkable feats. That’s what makes them special and that’s why we pay money to watch them. But just as some are now saying that measures need to be taken to limit the risk of athletic endeavors, many others who engage in those endeavors are saying “Let me be the judge” and more importantly “Let me do what nobody has done before and put my name in the record book”. Athletes are not so much interested in doing the best that year. They work and train relentlessly so they can do it the best ever. Safety is always a concern. Nobody wants to see young athletes get killed. But if the mentality changes to one of reduced expectations it completely eliminates the reason for competing.

 

If we were to have seen several lugers’ crash or leave the track in a particular area we could then be assured that the track had a problem. But to have one incident, as tragic as it was, tells me that the track is not the problem, but the guy flying down it is. The accident occurred on his fifth run down this particular track. The track stayed the same. His reactions were flawed.

 

I am deeply saddened for the loss of this young man’s life. I am heartbroken for his family and friends. But enough already with comparing every single incident that happens over the rest of these Olympic Games to what happened to Nodar Kumaritashvili.

 

By doing so NBC only diminishes the honor of his memory.