Winter Olympics (Vancouver 2010) » Bobsleigh

Utah sliding track manager David Dinger dies at 45

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:41:23 +0000

PARK CITY, Utah (AP)—The man who managed the bobsled, skeleton and luge track at Utah Olympic Park for much of the last decade has died at 45.

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said David Dinger died Wednesday from kidney cancer.

Dinger’s career in sliding started after a luge clinic, shortly before the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Dinger became track manager at the Olympic facility, spending much of his time focusing on how to maintain the ice for optimal sliding.

He attended the Vancouver Olympics with the U.S. bobsled team. Dinger celebrated at the finish with the American contingent after Steven Holcomb piloted USA-1 to the nation’s first gold medal in four-man bobsledding since 1948.

A service will be Sunday at Utah Olympic Park in Park City.

Charges dropped against US bobsledder in Vancouver

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:48:21 +0000

NORTH VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP)—American bobsledder Bill Schuffenhauer will attend counseling after charges were dropped of assault and uttering threats to his fiancee during the Vancouver Olympics.

Schuffenhauer was detained and released by police Feb. 25 in Whistler, British Columbia, after an alleged argument. The prosecution dropped the charges Tuesday after he agreed to “extensive counseling.”

The 37-year-old Schuffenhauer from Ogden, Utah, was a pushman for USA-3 at the Vancouver Games. He won a silver medal in four-man bobsled at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.

He did not appear in court.

Champion hired by US bobsled federation

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:49:15 +0000

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP)—Olympic champion Janis Kipurs is the new driving coach for the U.S. women’s bobsled team.

Kipurs, who won gold and bronze medals for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Calgary Games and then continued his driving career for Latvia, will be with the Americans through the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He’ll assist recently hired head coach Dave Owens in the women’s program.

Kipurs also won medals at the world championships and European championships during his driving career.

He has coached Swiss, French, Canadian and American athletes in recent years, helping them win eight Olympic and 12 world championship medals.

USA Luge team to open training camp Friday

admin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:21:40 +0000

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP)—Former women’s world champion Erin Hamlin and three-time Olympian Tony Benshoof are among 14 athletes who will be part of USA Luge’s season-opening training camp starting Friday.

It’ll be the first camp overseen by five-time Olympian Mark Grimmette, who retired from sliding a month after the Vancouver Games and is now USA Luge’s sport program manager.

Vancouver Olympians Julia Clukey, Chris Mazdzer and Christian Niccum are expected to be part of the camp as well, as is 2006 Turin Games competitor Courtney Zablocki, among others.

Grimmette will be assisted by three-time Olympian Duncan Kennedy and Bill Tavares, who is transitioning over from a long stint with the U.S. bobsled team.

Gold medallist Heather Moyse struggles with return to top-level rugby

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:01:26 +0000

Michael Kappeler, AFP/Getty Images

VANCOUVER ' Heather Moyse is discovering it's not that easy to shift seamlessly from the elite level of one sport to another without hitting some transitional speed bumps along the way.

The gold medallist in the two-women bobsleigh in the February Winter Olympics, the 31-year-old is attempting to restart the promising rugby career she left behind two years ago to chase her dream of gold at the Vancouver Games.

Tonight, Moyse continues her quest to return to the level she once held on the rugby pitch when Canada's senior national women's team takes on the U.S. in the second of a two-match international series on the artificial turf at the Bear Mountain Stadium in Langford.

Canada won Monday's series opener in Shawnigan Lake 14-8.

Moyse said Thursday she and her teammates got a boost of confidence from Monday's victory against their traditional rivals (the U.S. still leads in all-time series 15-11), but are mindful of the improvements they still need to make.

"Our confidence is up in the sense we won the first game," says the native of Summerside, P.E.I. "But we know there is a lot more we could have done."

Canada's women's team is prepping for this summer's World Cup in August in England. At the moment, there are about 30 women training with the national team on Vancouver Island who are competing for 26 spots on the World Cup roster.

There's a handful of others under consideration who are currently training with the club teams.

Considering Moyse was one of the stars of the Canadian team that nearly earned a podium finish (4th place) at the last World Cup in 2006, you would figure the former University of Waterloo multi-sport star (rugby, soccer and track and field) would have little difficulty regaining her former position on the squad.

Two years away from the sport, however, means it's no foregone conclusion she has a spot wrapped up in 2010.

Moyse, who scored the winning try in the series-opening victory, will be on the substitutes' bench again tonight to start the game.

While nobody wins Olympic gold without being in peak condition, Moyse says the transition back to rugby has meant different physical demands on her body.

"In bobsleigh there's more of an emphasis on explosive power," she notes.

"In rugby, you've got to get your body ready for more running and sustained physical pounding."

Moyse -- who has shifted from her former position at fullback to wing -- maintains she is mentally prepared for the challenge ahead of her.

"The toughest part is the frustration of not being able to immediately pick up at the level you were at before," she says. "While I've been away the other girls on the team have moved ahead."

IN SHORT: Maria Gallo, who plays for the Burnaby Lake Rugby Club, will earn her 50th international cap tonight. Gallo, an instructor in the school of human kinetics at UBC, has played for Canada in two previous World Cups -- in Spain 2002 and Canada 2006 -- and was captain for Canada at the 2007 Sevens Rugby World Cup in Dubai.

llittle@vancouversun.com

Canadian Olympic athletes have more opportunities to cash in

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:02:21 +0000

Leah Hennel, Calgary Herald

CANMORE, Alta. ' Win an Olympic gold medal as an American, an Australian, an European or an Asian and there's a very good chance you'll be set for life financially.

Yet, it's only a handful of highly decorated and visible Canadian amateur athletes who will be able to cash on their Olympic successes. But the latest group of medallists from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics say that while it still takes a lot of knocking, there are more opportunities now than ever before.

'I don't know if it's our tax structure corporately or the way we view amateur sport but if you compare it to the U.S. or a country like Australia, you look at some of those athletes and a gold medal pretty well guarantees a million dollars,' says four-time Olympic hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser, who helped land one of the record 14 gold medals at Vancouver.

'In Canada our perspective is different, but coming out of Vancouver, I think it's changed. There's better opportunities now for athletes than there were two or three Olympics ago.'

Even with medals in all four Olympics, Wickenheiser says it took her a long time to get to the point where 'I can make a decent living doing what I do. It's a good job, but you're not going to get rich or make millions of dollars. It's a comfortable living, but it's not the same if you were an American athlete or athlete from another country.'

Few have been as successful as skeleton gold medallist Jon Montgomery, whose face was replayed over and over on international television as he paraded through Whistler, B.C., with a mug of beer in one hand while celebrating his victory.

His agent Russell Reimer recently came out and said he expects Montgomery to round up as much as $200,000 because of his Olympic success, including the $20,000 bonus paid by the Canadian Olympic Committee for winning gold. All of which caught the outgoing redhead a little by surprise.

'That would be great,' he said. 'To say we've done that so far would be a lie, but it remains to see how it turns out. I'm definitely going to try and make some moves so it'll position me to concentrate on athletics for the next four years and the push for 2014 and that's really my focus right now.

'There's been opportunities to try and capitalize on what happened in Vancouver and Whistler and that's what I'm presently sorting through. I haven't signed any deals or got any sponsors or anything of that nature, but there's a number of opportunities that have presented themselves as a direct result of the 2010 Olympics.'

Montgomery's popularity is such that he now commands a $12,500 speaking fee and he has given speeches as far away as Japan. But Thursday he's off to Uganda to help with a Right To Play camp and then it's over to South Africa to take in a World Cup soccer game or two.

'I quite enjoy that part of it,' he said of telling his Olympic story, among others, to corporate gatherings and such. 'Being able to share my story with folks and them in turn sharing theirs with me . . . let them see, touch and wear the medal because it's Canada's gold medal, but the helmet is mine. You can't wear my helmet . . . it's mine and it's special, but I want everyone to share the medal, wear it.'

Here's what's happening with some of the other 2010 Olympians:

'¢ Gold-medal winning bobsled pilot Kallie Humphries of Calgary says she's been able to do one or two speaking engagements most weeks that has allowed her to pay the rent and most of her bills, but has yet to land a sponsorship, which she'll need if she's to purchase a new $55,000 sled before the 2014 Games at Sochi, Russia.

'I'm hoping corporate Calgary steps up a little bit more over the next year or so because this is where we really counts, where we really need it,' she said. 'But at the same time as athletes we'll strive for excellence.'

She admitted to feeling a little frustration to see U.S. medallists bagging big sponsorship deals, land commercials, endorsements and such 'but in Canada, that just doesn't happen and I know Canadians can support amateur athletes because we did an amazing job in Vancouver. But it's that four-year cycle starting again. You get a little support from the government and a little from the corporate side, but we're not really excelling at anything, so I hope it gets a bit stronger. Only the future will tell.'

'¢ Skeleton racer Mellissa Hollingsworth didn't land a medal at these past Olympics, but brought one back from Turin, Italy, in 2006. Her country girl personality has enabled her to land a number of speaking engagements and a faithful sponsorship that allows her to 'feel very comfortable.'

'Fifth at the Olympics isn't that notable, but I think people see who I am as a person and that's why they want to be involved in my journey,' she said. '(Sponsorship) is the cheapest form of our national pride . . . it's a way to keep up the momentum, continue on that path (towards the next Olympics), keep up with our athletes and see what they're doing.

'Every athlete has an amazing story to tell of how they got to where they're at whether they have an Olympic medal or not.'

'¢ Bobsled silver-medallist Helen Upperton thinks a more effective post-Olympic platform that would keep the athletes in the public's eye, would go a long ways towards landing more financial support.

'The attention and focus just shifts to other things,' she said. 'NHL playoffs, now the World Cup of soccer. The Olympics kind of fall by the wayside.

'The prize money from the (federal) government was a good start and I think the opportunity for sponsorship will be there. Nobody wants to come off Olympics success and struggle at the World Cup (circuit next season). We all want to go out there guns blazing and ready for podium finishes again and you can't do that without money.'

'¢ Seven-time Paralympic cross country gold medallist Brian McKeever admits he's been busy with 'a few functions here and there' but only now is getting back into training mode.

The legally blind skier, who teams with brother and guide Robin in competition, is hoping to land a solid sponsorship that'll help him not only be a force again in 2014 but possibly make Canada's Olympic cross country team again. He made the Olympic team in 2010, but was not selected for any races.

'I think personality will play a role,' he said, 'and how marketable you are and with any luck, some companies will see Robin and myself as a marketable pair of guys and take us on board. If not, we still got some really good exposure from the Games.'

Calgary Herald

jdown@theherald.canwest.com

Russian Olympic organizers take Vancouver Games lessons to heart

admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:08:57 +0000

More Images » MIKHAIL MORDASOV, AFP/Getty Images

Krasnaya Polyana, Russia - Russian Olympic organizers will make major changes to their preparations for the Sochi 2014 Games as a result of lessons they learned from the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Worried that the kind of once-in-a century warm weather conditions that afflicted Vancouver could also visit Sochi, organizers said they will incorporate sophisticated weather forecasting systems and snow-stockpiling into their planning.

Speaking at the closing press conference of the Vancouver 2010 Debriefing conference, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the chief executive of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee said in 300 years the the north Caucasus mountains where the ski events will take place have not had a lack of snow.

But he said watching Vancouver go through the warmest weather in more than 100 years made it clear that Sochi also had to factor in potential - even if rare - climate change conditions.

Unusually warm weather in Vancouver forced the cancellation of thousands of spectator tickets at Cypress Mountain and caused major headaches for Vanoc. It had to rebuild snowboard courses with bales of hay and moved mountains of snow from as far away as B.C.'s interior as torrential rains threatened to wash away its efforts.

More than 45 Vanoc staff came to Russia to deliver to the Sochi 2014 committee the best lessons they learned from putting on the Vancouver Games. The debriefing is part of a knowledge transfer process the International Olympic Committee has insisted upon since the 2000 Sydney Games to avoid costly and repetitive mistakes by future organizers.

The Russians also took to heart concerns that some national Olympic teams did not get enough training time, and Chernyshenko said Sochi will speed up commissioning of its sport venues to make sure athletes have at least two seasons of practice.

"We will bring the venue commissioning timetable as forward as possible to allow sufficient reserve time to be fully prepared for test events and the practice of our athletes," he said.

Gunilla Lindberg, an International Olympic Committee member and secretary-general of the Association of National Olympic Committees, said there was some criticism of Vanoc's training schedules and that athletes from smaller countries need to have more time on the slopes and tracks.

Chernyshenko's promise of acceleration is significant because Sochi is in the midst of one of the largest construction and development programs by recent winter Games countries. Between Sochi 2014, the Russian federal government, regional partners and private interests, more than $30 billion is being spent on everything from sport venues to a new combined road and rail network to the creation of at least 20,000 new hotel rooms in half a dozen new resorts. By comparison, Vanoc spent $580 million on its venues, and the province spent another roughly $2.6 billion on the Canada Line, Vancouver convention centre and Sea to Sky Highway improvements.

The scope and scale of Russia's project has raised the concerns of the International Olympic Committee, which says Sochi faces a major challenge in finding enough people and worker accommodation to operate the new and expanded services.

Vanoc's ability to rally Canadians around the 2010 Games has also spurred Sochi to advance the unveiling of its mascot program to 2011, three full years before the Games. Chernyshenko said that by doing so - the earliest in Olympic history - he's hopeful he can create the same kind of national pride around the 2014 Games that he saw in Vancouver this year.

"We recognize the important of emotionally uniting the entire country behind the Games to generate a great atmosphere. We've got very impressive results of that experience we all enjoyed in Vancouver. That is why we are planning to bring forward the launch of our mascot program to 2011," he said.

Both Jean-Claude Killy, the chairman of the IOC's Sochi Coordination Committee, and Vanoc CEO John Furlong said Vanoc's weather woes made it clear Sochi needed to be prudent, even if the Caucasus mountains haven't missed snow in 300 years.

"Even zero in 300 years sounds like pretty good odds, but it could happen and you need to know that you have the strength and discipline to manage anything that comes," Furlong said.

Furlong said Sochi staff exhausted his colleagues over the week in extracting every bit of information they could use to advance the Olympics.

"I have to say that the team in Sochi became magnificent students of what took place in Vancouver," he said, calling Sochi "a jewel of a place." "Speaking personally, I am extremely optimistic that the Olympic games of 2014 will be a stunningly great experience," he said. "You are well set up for success, and I hope we have given you a fighting chance based on what we've had."

One matter that was not officially on the agenda was the repercussions of the fatal accident on the Whistler Sliding Track. Although IOC and bobsled and luge federation officials held private discussions about the accident, in which Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a training accident on the opening day of the Vancouver Games, no briefings were given to the conference delegates.

More than 600 people, including members of the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 organizing committees and teams from the three 2018 bidding cities, Annecy, France; Munich, Germany and Pyeongchang, South Korea attended the conference, which took place at a lush mountain resort at the centre of Sochi 2014's planned snow and ski venues.

jefflee@vancouversun.com

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Click on the box below to watch this story's video: Sochi 2014 - The Power of the Olympic Games

Click on the box below to watch this story's video: Sochi 2014 - Advice for Brand Protection

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Click on the box below to watch this story's video: Sochi 2014 - IOC Advice for Athlete Training

Click on the box below to watch this story's video: Sochi 2014 - Advice for Venue Construction from Vanoc

Click on the box below to watch this story's video: Sochi 2014 - What the Russians can learn from Vancouver

Click on the box below to watch this related video: Vanoc CTO's advice for Sochi 2014

Click on the box below to watch this related video: Sochi 2014 - Lessons Learned: Vanoc Operations

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To Russia, with the voice of experience

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:39:52 +0000

More Images » Mark van Manen, PNG

Jeff Lee, The Sun's Olympic Reporter, is in Sochi, Russia this week for the official debriefing of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. That's where John Furlong and others will pass on to the International Olympic Committee and Sochi 2014 organizers the lessons they learned while organizing the Vancouver 2010 Games.

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This Black Sea city, nearly as far south as you can get in the Russian Federation, is an unlikely place for a Winter Olympics.

Like Vancouver, Sochi is bathed in temperate weather. Scantily-clad sun-worshippers can be found on its palm-tree-lined beaches, even in early spring. But like Vancouver, it is also shouldered by high mountains that lend themselves to winter snow sports.

When the International Olympic Committee gave Sochi the 2014 Games, it knew it was taking many risks: mild weather; virtually no winter sports infrastructure; internal political problems ranging from the recent war in Chechnya 480 kilometres to the east and not infrequent terrorist attacks; and an ingrained level of corruption in Russian society.

But the IOC also understood Premier Vladimir Putin's desire to use the Games as an opportunity to build Russia's first and only winter sports and tourism destination. Putin's personal presence in Guatemala City in 2007 at its decision-making conference sealed the deal. Now, just as Vancouver experienced in 2006 at the end of the Turin Winter Games, Sochi is discovering the eyes of the world are firmly fixed upon them.

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Click on the box below to watch this this story's video: Sochi 2014 - What the Russians can learn from Vancouver

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In the summer of 2006, Turin's chief executive Cesare Vaciago and a number of his staff came to Vancouver to deliver their views on what they did right and wrong at the 2006 Olympic Games. The debriefing was part of the IOC's relatively new program to transfer knowledge to future Games organizers from those who have been through the process.

Now it's Vancouver's turn to pass on advice on best practices ... and what not to do.

The debriefing program was created in response to Olympic organizers making costly and repetitive mistakes. Each country, wanting to put its own nationalistic stamp on the Games, often repeated decisions that didn't work at previous Games, only to discover they worked just as poorly for them. The IOC wanted to put an end to "white elephant" venues, of wasting money on extravagant and unnecessary programs and of leaving taxpayers fatigued with debt.

But they also wanted to capitalize on the best practices of organizers. Following the 2000 Sydney Summer Games -- regarded as one of the best in IOC history -- the IOC created the Olympic Games Knowledge Management program. They created an internal website accessible to all future Games organizers and bidders, and required that an official debriefing follow every Olympics.

It is no small affair. Sochi is paying for 45 staff and sponsors from the Vancouver Organizing Committee to travel to Russia. As well, organizers of the London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Games, and bidders for the 2018 Games, are also in Sochi to learn what pitfalls to avoid and what cherry trees to pick in the years ahead.

In an interview this week, Vanoc CEO John Furlong leaned more toward the things Vancouver did right than wrong. Ticketing and volunteers were two bright spots; Vanoc tried to eliminate the empty-seat syndrome that plagued the Turin Games. Vaciago four years ago also told Vanoc that the Italians had too many untrained volunteers doing menial tasks.

Vanoc clamped down on scalpers and created a resale site for its customers. And it created a volunteer program, populated by Furlong's 25,000 "Blue Jackets" who were widely credited with creating a festive and relaxed atmosphere.

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Click on the box below to watch this related video: Sochi 2014 - Lessons Learned: Vanoc Operations

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Ticketing and volunteers are also two problems facing Sochi. The culture of volunteerism is almost non-existent in Russia, and the lure of vast profits from reselling domestic tickets will be an intoxicant for Russians, whose average monthly wage is about $650.

But Furlong also said the debriefing isn't a place for Vanoc to brag. "It isn't really for us to go and flex our muscles and tell everybody how good we think we were," he said. "Our job really is to provide help [and] to share information they will be able to use to become better at what they do."

Sochi is well underway on its construction program and it has amassed more corporate sponsorship at this point than Vancouver did in its entirety. But it faces some considerable issues. Sochi's $12-billion US budget is causing friction, and many Russians are worried about the environmental degradation taking place as the organizers build everything from sports venues to railway lines and highways to the mountain region of Krasnaya Polyana. Recently, Putin ordered the bobsleigh track be moved from an environmentally sensitive area.

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Click on the box below to watch this this story's video: Sochi 2014 - Transportation Construction

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There have already been allegations of shoddy workmanship, and last winter a new port built for the Games was destroyed in a storm. And, unlike Vancouver, Sochi -- following in the footsteps of 2008 Summer Games host Beijing -- forcibly evicted a number of residents that were in the way of its expansive construction plans.

There are also security challenges the likes of which Canada never had to face. Sochi is on the edge of the North Caucasus region, where Islamists have engaged in terrorist acts. Relations with next-door Georgia are still tense over the dispute in North and South

Ossetia. These are security issues Furlong has no intention of dealing with here in Sochi. He told reporters this week that Canadian security experts at a higher level than him will give their lessons to Russians later. But executive vice-president Terry Wright will brief Sochi on Vanoc's more tightly scripted inside-the-fence security program.

In an editorial opinion, IOC president Jacques Rogge underscored why Vanoc's lessons need to be learned by future organizers.

"Such transfers of knowledge are of paramount importance ... Sochi and Rio already know that they do not have to reinvent the wheel each step of the way, and the dialogue with Vancouver and the IOC will go a long way to engage and inspire them," he said. "At a time when the world is struggling to come out of recession, staging the biggest sporting event in the world can sometimes feel daunting. This is natural. To be supplied with firsthand knowledge from those who have been there before them, however, allows future host cities to make their own projects as economically efficient and effective as possible and to gain a great deal of perspective."

For Vanoc's Furlong, this transfer is the culmination of everything he learned in more than a decade of bidding for, organizing and hosting the Games. When he comes back to Canada, very little will be left for either him or his swiftly dwindling staff to do, except pay some bills, finish some legal cases and clean up and return some venues to their owners. Sometime in the fall, Vanoc will give to taxpayers the last lesson to be learned: a final accounting of the $1.7-billion operating budget.

It's yet to be seen whether there will be a surplus.

jefflee@vancouversun.com

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Click on the box below to watch this related video: Vanoc CTO's advice for Sochi 2014

Click on the box below to watch this story's video: Vanoc's new book, With Glowing Hearts

Shani Davis not sure about skating at 2014 Games

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:38:21 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP)—Two-time Olympic speedskating champion Shani Davis is not ready to commit to competing at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“We’ll see,” the 27-year-old American said Tuesday. “I mean, I’ll continue to skate, and if my heart still carries me over in four years, then I’ll be there.”

Davis and four-man bobsled gold medalist Steven Holcomb spoke to The Associated Press while taking a break from posing for photos and signing autographs during an appearance for the U.S. Olympic Committee at a BP gas station in Southeast Washington. The BP petroleum company became a USOC sponsor during the Vancouver Games.

They’re two of the more than 200 U.S. Olympians and Paralympians spending time in the nation’s capital this week, including a visit to the White House on Wednesday to meet President Barack Obama.

Davis won a second consecutive Olympic gold at 1,000 meters in February, along with a second consecutive silver at 1,500.

When one signature-seeking fan asked Davis on Tuesday if he’d be at the next Olympics, the athlete replied: “I’ll try, man. You never know.”

Earlier, when asked by the AP about his fellow Olympian and friend Apolo Anton Ohno’s plans for 2014, Davis said the pair hasn’t spoken much since the Vancouver Olympics.

“I think he’s retired,” Davis said, then stopped himself and sought to start over.

“I don’t want to speak for him,” Davis continued. “If he didn’t say that, please don’t print that. I have no idea. But that’s kind of the idea: (Vancouver) was his last Olympics. But you never know. He might decide to come back. He’s strong enough, talented enough to do it. So I hope that he does actually come back.”

For the record: Ohno clearly has contemplated retirement but as recently as two weeks ago wouldn’t definitively rule out a return to competition.

His three medals in Vancouver gave Ohno a U.S.-record eight career Winter Olympic medals.

Might Davis prod his pal into continuing?

“He’s his own man. I support him, no matter what he does,” Davis said. “If he wants to skate, if he wants to act or launch his … supplement thing, I support him.”

Holcomb, for his part, is on board for another medal bid after becoming the first U.S. pilot to take gold in four-man bobsledding since 1948. Two members of his push team—Justin Olsen and Curt Tomasevicz—also have pledged to stick around another four years, while the third—Steve Mesler—is “kind of up in the air right now,” Holcomb said.

“We’re trying to keep the same team together and try to build off that. One thing USA Bobsled struggles to do is keep the team together, which makes it more difficult, because you have to teach new guys everything again. So we’ll see.”

Shani Davis: A diva who can get down and dirty when he has to

Driver error contributed to Georgian luger’s fatal Olympic crash

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:43:26 +0000

More Images » Richard Heathcote, Getty Images

VANCOUVER ' The International Luge Federation said Monday that no single reason could be pinpointed for the cause of the accident that killed Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili on the opening day of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games.

But in a final report into the accident, it once again said that Kumaritashvili's actions on the track contributed to the catastrophic event in which his sled flew out of control on the last turn at the Whistler Sliding Centre, catapulting him out of the track and into a metal pole.

Kumaritashvili, 21, died instantly. His death cast an immediate pall over the 2010 Winter Games and triggered several investigations, including one by the luge federation (FIL).

The report, a copy of which was delivered to the International Olympic Committee a week ago, examines the training runs and homologation or approval processes that the track went through after it was built in December, 2007. The FIL also reviewed Kumaritashvili's sport qualification and concluded that he had met the requirements.

The 20-page report made no recommendations. But it noted that luge officials were aware that athletes were clocking speeds far faster than the original 136-kilometre per hour maximum speed the track's designer, Udo Gurgel, had contemplated. The maximum speed clocked was 153.98 km/h by Felix Loch of Germany. Kumaritashvili had achieved a speed of about 145 kilometres an hour in one of his training runs. After Kumaritashvili's fatal accident the FIL lowered the start gates for the 2010 Olympics to reduce the speeds.

The report also leaves unclear the future of the $119-million Whistler Sliding Centre. After the crash the FIL instructed the organizers of the 2014 Winter Games to make sure its own track would not exceed Gurgel's calculations. In Monday's report the FIL said Whistler is scheduled to hold the 2013 World Championships and a qualifying World Cup in 2012. But technical experts have yet to determine if the races can proceed from the original start gates.

The report doesn't shed any new light on the construction process or why the track was built to exceed the designer's specifications. It included no technical information about the track itself or about the qualifications of Gurgel. It spends a few pages reviewing the qualification process for luge athletes and national Olympic committees, and it includes a "tribute" to Kumaritashvili. But it leaves largely unanswered questions about the technical design, construction and history of the track, which is now considered to be the fastest and most technically difficult track in the world.

Those questions may yet be answered by an investigation by the B.C. Coroner's Service, which is expected to issue a report later this year.

The International Olympic Committee said in an emailed statement to Canwest News last week that it would "carefully study the findings of the report before making further comment at the time of publication."

John Furlong, the president of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, issued a brief statement an hour after the FIL report was published, saying it was "quite possibly the greatest honour to Nodar's memory: a thorough investigative report designed to understand precisely what happened on his final, fatal training run and a report that is the starting point to ensuring that, through the lessons learned, such a tragic incident may never happen again." He said the FIL "has made it clear in this report that this accident's circumstances were indeed unique. We are grateful for their affirmation of the safety measures at the (Whistler sliding centre) that they took to protect all athletes and for their determination to learn from this tragedy."

The FIL said that 32,646 training runs were conducted on the track before the Olympics in all sports, including.luge, skeleton and bobsleigh. There were a total of 203 crashes. It did not break out the number of accidents involving each sport..

Knowing that the track was faster than planned, the FIL changed training run tactics, requiring every athlete to start their runs from the lower "novice", "junior" and "ladies" start gates as a way of acclimatizing themselves to the fast speeds. It said that Kumaritashvili had taken 26 training runs, 20 of them during an international training week in November, 2009 and six in the days before the Olympics. Luge officials reopened the track the day after the accident but only allowed the men to start at the ladies' gate during the Olympics.

It said Kumaritashvili's accident could not have been foreseen given the many thousands of runs that had been taken on the track. Instead, it said officials reviewed videos of the accident and concluded that Kumaritashvili had entered the last curve, No. 16, late and he appeared to have been overwhelmed by the resulting gravitational forces. One of his gloved hands dropped onto the ice and his right shoulder was forced downward.

"Both actions literally served to pivot it in a similar way a sharp turn is made when a handbrake is applied to a car at a high rate of speed. This resulted in sending the sled down towards the wall on the other side at an exceptional angle," the report said.

"The findings from examining the fatal run indicate that Nodar did commit driving errors starting in curve 15/16 which as an accumulation ended in the impact that resulted in him leaving the track and subsequently hitting a post, causing blunt force trauma to the base of his skull, causing the fatality. This is a tragic result that should not have occurred as a result of an initial driving error."

Ordinarily accidents result in sleds bouncing off the walls or breaking their runners as they absorb the impact. Athletes normally stay inside the track. But in this case the angle of Kumaritashvili's sled was so steep that it actually compressed itself, becoming a catapult that ejected him high into the air and directly into the path of a metal pole. The FIL said that such bowing of a sled "has not been seen before and was therefore not predictable by technical and safety experts. No athlete would have control in dealing with this type of 'catapult' effect."

It was the first time in 35 years a luge athlete had been killed on a track.

In June the track will be turned over to the Whistler 2010 Sport Legacies society, which will also operate the Nordic facilities in Whistler Olympic Park and an athletes' training centre. Keith Bennett, the society's president, said in Vanoc's statement: "We commend the FIL on the thorough preparation evident in this report and look forward to the opportunity to host them and their member athletes in future training and competition. Nodar's death -- but also his determination and drive -- are part of the Whistler Sliding Center history and we will always honor his memory, working with all parties to ensure that, while sliding sports are speed-based, safety remains our number one priority in running both a high performance and recreational facility."

The Vancouver Sun

jefflee@vancouversun.com