2010 Olympic opening ceremony goes on despite luge death
The father of the Georgian luger killed at the Vancouver Olympics said Monday his son worried the track was too dangerous, but insisted on competing because he had come to the games to try to win.
“He told me: I will either win or die,” David Kumaritashvili told The Associated Press. “But that was youthful bravado, he couldn’t be seriously talking about death.”
The 21 year old Nodar Kumaritashvili was traveling at a speed of 90mph when he crashed and got flung into a pole. Doctors tried to revive him but it was too late.
Despite the training-run death earlier in the day of a luger from the country of Georgia, the Olympics’ opening ceremonies unfolded in a mostly jubilant atmosphere, with an upbeat crowd filling BC Place Stadium.
The festive mood, including a snowboarder’s leap through giant Olympic rings, contrasted sharply with the grief that befell the games earlier in the day when luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a horrific crash on the sliding track at Whistler.
The ceremonies were dedicated to Kumaritashvili, and a moment of silence was observed in his memory. The seven remaining members of the Georgian team, who decided to stay and compete, wore black armbands as they marched behind a black-trimmed flag. Most of the crowd rose to give respectful applause.
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