Olympic luge organizers were told three years before the Vancouver Games' track was built that it would send racers downhill at speeds that would easily eclipse past records — and once it was built, made two sets of track adjustments out of apparent safety concerns, said people involved in the sport.
The revelations over the safety of the track came as two bobsled drivers pulled out from competition on the track, the Whistler Sliding Centre, including Swiss medal favorite Beat Hefti. Mr. Hefti sustained a concussion and other injuries in a training crash on the run Wednesday, one of several crashes by bobsledders during practice runs.
View Full Image
Udo Gurgel
Organizers knew before the construction of the Whistler Sliding Centre, shown here in September 2006, that it stood to become the world's fastest.
There are indications that the International Luge Federation, or FIL, the sport's governing body, began hearing concerns about the safety Whistler Sliding Centre track shortly after it opened in 2008.
Some top lugers suffered high-speed crashes during initial training runs in 2008, Austrian luge team member Wolfgang Kindl said late Thursday. If a luger transitioned too early from Turn 11 to Turn 12, for example, it was almost impossible not to collide into a wall or skid. After turn 12, he said, an early transition into Turn 13 would result in an almost inevitable flipping of the sled.
"I had problems, a lot of people had problems," said Mr. Kindl, who placed ninth in this week's medal chase. "We are not used to that speed."
Mr. Kindl and Christoph Schweiger, the general secretary of the Austrian Luge Federation, said coaches from numerous national team discussed at the time with the FIL how to make the track safer.
When sliders returned months later for February World Cup event, the ice profile in Turn 12 had been changed, a roof had been constructed over Turn 14 and safety walls had been added around some of the other curves, said Mr. Kindl. Still, the track was as fast and difficult as any in the world, he said.
Wolfgang Harder, spokesman for the International Luge Federation, said his organization insisted on changes to the track following the February 2009 World Cup competition. Those included the construction of additional safety walls at curves 11, 12 and 13 — but not at curve 16, the location where 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died last week.
Mr. Harder did not address changes made before the World Cup, or say what sparked his organization's calls for the changes afterward. The track's designer, Udo Gurgel, said it is standard for technical committees within the international luge and bobsled federations to recommend safety features for any new site before it is approved for international competition.
Design documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal, including sketches and speed tables, show that the Vancouver Games' organizers, Vanoc, signed off on a course plan in 2004 that included a projected top luge speed of as much as 98 miles per hour. The peak speed in international competition, set in 2000, was about 87 miles per hour.
The Vancouver track was fast in part because it was located on a narrower site than those chosen for previous Olympic tracks, meaning it couldn't include sweeping, speed-slowing curves typical of many other courses.
The track's designer, Udo Gurgel, said Vanoc the luge federation also received the specifications. "The Technical Commission of the FIL received the same information," Mr. Gurgel said.
A Vanoc spokeswoman said that changes had been made to the track early on, but wasn't able to make an executive available to discuss them Friday.
Immediately after Mr. Kumaritashvili's fatal accident, Vanoc and the FIL said the track was safe and that the racer had failed to control his sled.
On Friday, Mr. Harder said that after the Games, the FIL would "reexamine" information gathered about the accident and determine how to best move forward. That investigation will be made public, he said, likely at the end of March. "Everything will be investigated," he said. "Safety is our guiding principle."
Mr. Gurgel, who has designed several Olympic luge runs, said he plans to support the FIL investigation after the Games. "I think an investigation is important; we would call for an investigation if it were not already planned," Mr. Gurgel said.
—Geoffrey A. Fowler contributed to this article.
Write to David Crawford at david.crawford@wsj.com and Matt Futterman at matthew.futterman@wsj.com
luge team member, international luge federation, olympic luge, speed crashes, track adjustments, kindl, lugers, bobsled, initial training, luger, schweiger, transitioned, safety concerns, general secretary, whistler, governing body, sled, concussion, revelations, curves
No comments:
Post a Comment