February 13, 2010 - Whistler, Canada

Yesterday a terrible tragedy took place on the luge track. A 23 year old from Georgia died as he took a training run in preparation for his Olympic race the next day. He simply steered too hard off the exit of the last curve and launched himself out of the track at over 90 mph. He ran into a support pole nearby. There is a lot of talk about who is to blame and how this could have been prevented, but I want to avoid that. Nothing can bring this young man’s life back. He anticipated the two weeks of his life, representing his small country to the world. Instead his family will never see him alive again.
This is a reminder of how incredibly dangerous the sliding sports are. We strive to go faster and faster every day. We try to minimize friction in order to win, but that same friction is what gives us control in a near uncontrollable contraption. We wear minimal safety equipment and a crash can happen at any time on any track. Hopefully, the necessary lessons will be learned and this type of incident will never happen again. But as long as we are competitive and strive to get faster, the element of danger will always exist.