Olympics Times – Sports Daily

The controversy surrounding Friday’s fatal accident on the luge track at the Winter Olympics continues. And tonight more athletes set to compete on that track are asking questions, as CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reports from Vancouver.
The luge runs on a refitted track that began Saturday continued Sunday – with a higher wall at turn 16 near the finish and a lower start point for everyone, following the opening-day death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run.
But the concern continues, not just for lugers but for all the athletes scheduled to compete at the Whistler Sliding Center – the fastest track in the world. After luge comes skeleton, then bobsled.
The Whistler track is super-fast due to its grade, said Noelle Pikus-Pace, a world-champion skeleton racer.
“From curve one down to curve three, we drop so quickly so suddenly,” she said. “Any error can cause injury.”
In her sport, Pikus-Pace can reach speeds of nearly 90 mph on the track. And she knows well the dangers of sliding sports. Her leg was badly broken in 2005 when a bobsled that failed to break crashed into her in Calgary.
Her intense rehab forced her to miss the Torino games four years ago. But she’s now in Vancouver – with her two-year-old daughter Lacee – going for gold in a sport that his hardly safer.
“It’s a lot faster than when I first started [10 years ago],” Pikus-Pace said. “Not just because of the tracks but because of equipment. Technology has taken us to a whole new level.”
That means the sleds, the uniforms – anything that gives an edge. For better or worse following the Olympic motto: higher, faster, stronger.
“It’s almost like we’ve gone back to ancient Rome – where we want to be entertained by dangerous events,” said Olympic historian David Wallichensky.
There have been more crashes since Friday’s tragedy, though nothing serious. With plenty of competition left, athletes remain on edge.

source: www.cbsnews.com

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Relentless rain washed out women’s downhill training on Sunday, scrapping any alpine skiing on the first weekend of the Winter Olympic Games, while lugers aimed for gold on a track shortened to boost safety after the death of a Georgian competitor.

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The day’s action kicks off with the nordic combined before the men’s luge takes centre stage at Whistler’s Sliding Centre.
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England make it two wins out of two in the Six Nations but they have to survive a brave Italian fightback before securing a nervy victory in Rome.
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India take on South Africa in the second Test at Kolkata.
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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Canada, a country now entirely gripped by Winter Olympics fever, watched helpless on Saturday as an ice-cool American snuck in to snatch gold from mogul favorite Jennifer Heil and prevent a 34-year national sporting jinx being broken.

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Canada’s wait for Olympic gold on home soil continues as Hannah Kearney of the United States pips Jennifer Heil to gold in the freestyle skiing moguls.
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Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann wins the first gold of the 2010 Games, but the men’s downhill is postponed because of poor conditions.
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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Organizers shortened the world’s fastest luge track for safety on Saturday after a crash killed a Georgian Olympian as Swiss ski jumper Simon Ammann won the first gold medal at a Games plagued by warm, wet weather.

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France produce an impressive display to outclass Grand Slam holders Ireland 33-10 in their Six Nations clash in Paris.
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The 2010 Winter Olympics officially open but the ceremony in Vancouver is overshadowed by the death of 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili.
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How do you begin to describe an Olympics that starts with anxiety over the weather, intense national pride and celebration seeing the torch run through the city, a band of boisterous protesters facing off with police, and a tragic death before the first competition — maybe an emotional roller coaster?

Today was certainly like no other as the Winter Olympics officially began in Vancouver. I spent the early part of the day following the torch run and much of the afternoon watching protesters, along with a smaller but equally vocal group of Olympic supporters.

The diversity of views in Vancouver, and relative tolerance of differences, were apparent in the boisterous but mostly polite crowds. Police seemed calm and talked with people nearby. Demonstrators expressed their opposition to the Olympics in front of the world’s media.
Two women stood next to each other at the Vancouver Art Gallery and shouted opposing messages but remained respectful in front of amused onlookers.

“Go Canada Go” said Anna Kosturova, draped in a red blanket with a white maple leaf, ringing a cowbell and waving a Canadian flag.

“Go to the bathroom,” retorted Muriel Marjorie, brandishing a toilet plunger fashioned into an Olympic torch. “That’s where your money for healthcare and education is going.”

Protesters and bystanders both called the evening a success.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Eric Doherty, a transportation consultant who lives on the east side of Vancouver, where the torch relay had to be diverted Friday morning to avoid several hundred protesters blocking the street. Doherty was with a group of people rallying against expansion of freeways and climate change. “We kept the torch out of my neighborhood.”

Former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who was carrying the Olympic torch from a special chair pulled by two runners, was the one scheduled to go through that neighborhood. His torch route was changed at the last minute because of the protesters.

Sullivan said he was upset that the diversion caused a group of war veterans and children from several schools to miss seeing the torch run.

In spite of that setback, for a mayor who was instrumental in bringing the Games to Vancouver, the torch run was an unforgettable moment in a remarkable day.

“I felt the love,” he said. “I had tears in my eyes.”

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The luge competition at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will go ahead on Saturday despite the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili.
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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – A snowboarder soared through the Olympic rings and skiers schussed down mountains in the unlikely confines of a stadium as Canada whipped up a wintry wilderness for Friday’s opening of the 2010 Winter Games.

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The 2010 Winter Olympics will begin under a serious cloud after the death of a Georgian luger in training ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony.
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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old Georgian luger, died in a horrific crash on a training run on Friday, casting a pall over the Winter Olympics hours before the Games were to be declared open.

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Georgian luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili dies after a high-speed crash, casting a shadow over the opening of the Winter Olympics.
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VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Injured American skier Lindsey Vonn might get her groove back in time for the Winter Games after the downhill favorite told Facebook friends on Thursday she could possibly race through the pain.

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