Sports Injury Prevention Failure

A ll the warning signs were there: a $110-million luge track that turned out to be faster than the designer planned. There were several incidents prior to the Olympics in February 2010 that suggested that the track was not safe. A Hungarian slider was knocked unconscious the day before the fatal accident, while traveling at speeds in excess of 90 mph. Two days prior to the tragedy, a Swiss bobsled medal favorite withdrew from competition after sustaining a concussion and other injuries on a training run. Metal beams within 5 feet of the 98-mph track were not only exposed but not padded. Finally, a 21-year-old luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, told his father that he feared the track. Tragedy struck on Friday, February 12, 2010, just 7 hours before the official start of the Olympic Games at a training run at Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, British Columbia. The young luger was on the final curve, number 16, called Thunderbird, when his sled climbed the wall, catapulting him off the track and into a steel beam. Emergency crews were at his side almost immediately, but anyone who witnessed the crash realized what the outcome would be. Protective equipment, including the best-made helmets, cannot protect human beings at those speeds when crashing into immovable objects such as steel beams. The Olympic Games opened as planned that fateful day on a very somber note. The remaining Georgian athletes wore black armbands at the Opening Ceremony and were greeted by a standing ovation in memory of their lost teammate and fellow Olympian. Olympic officials were visibly shaken as the second-guessing began. Luge officials met late into that night to determine if competition could begin the next day. Multiple factors were discussed, including the weather at Whistler Mountain, which was warm and rainy. Although rain can make ice dangerously slick, the warm weather should have softened and slowed the course. Three years before the Olympic track was built at Whistler, the organizers of the games were told that the track would send racers through the course at record speeds, prompting 2 modifications of the course. After the Whistler course was completed in 2007, promotional materials called it " violent and rough. .. and not for the faint of heart. " (Wall Street Journal, Saturday, February 12, 2010). The Whistler Sliding Center course featured 20° slopes, almost 500 feet of vertical drop over its 1500-yard length, and is …