Vancouver weather not up to Olympic standards
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February 22, 2010
Pete DelMedico
At home, spectators may be confused when they turn on the winter Olympics and they see… grass. Or when half of the competitors in a downhill ski race fall before their run is finished. The warm weather and rain are not only defacing the image of the winter Olympics, but putting Olympians lives at risk like never before.
Due to weather, competitors have lost vital practice time on the courses. Athletes fear that insufficient practice runs may result in poor scores or injury from the unfamiliar platforms. Rain and ice don’t mix; and lugers know this well. In fact, over a dozen sliders crashed within a couple of days on the course, one being fatal.
On Friday, 21 year-old luger Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed and died during a practice run. When there is a sudden death the following words are often, “It happened so fast.” Kumaritashvili rounded the corner of Whistlers $100 million course at 89.4mph. After rounding the sharp turn, he was thrown into an unpadded steel girder. Immediate medical support was no use for this freak, deadly crash.
“These accidents should not happen,” Swiss figure skater Sarah Meier said.
Bad journalism was questioned after the video of the tragic crash was shown over 44 times on NBC, the sole network of the Olympics.
That night, at the opening ceremony, the Republic of Georgia’s 11 Olympic members mourned the loss of their teammate by wearing black hats, scarves and armbands.
Some may argue the heightened competition is the reason for all the crashing, but weather statistics don’t lie. In some situations, snow has replenished the hills by way of helicopter dumps. Desperate adjustments like this, on the biggest stage in the world, are not ideal for the athletes or the fans.
Now competitors have one more concern to worry about as they step up to the starting line- their lives.
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