Olympic Luger Feared Track

Like many other luge athletes ahead of the Vancouver Games, Nodar Kumaritashvili, the 21-year-old Georgian who died in an accident Friday, was concerned about the speed of the track. And hours before he lost control of his sled on the course’s final turn, he admitted that to his father, himself a Soviet-era luge athlete. “Dad, I'm scared of one of the turns,” Kumaritashvili said, according to The Wall Street Journal. Despite placing the blame on Kumaritashvili and not the track, officials decided to shorten the luge run Saturday to make sure no one reached the same dangerous speeds. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has since chimed in, frustrated that officials put Kumaritashvili at fault. “I don’t claim to know all the technical details,” he said, “but one thing I know for sure: No sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death.”