i happen to find this more appalling than…

…when the Chinese folks lied about how old their gymnast competitors were in the Beijing Olympics. I mean, we half expected it from them… but Olympic Officials – really?! I mean this poor guy isn’t even in the ground yet and already they are looking for a way to say it’s somehow this luger’s error and not the ridiculous Luge they built in that kinda-country called Canada.
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Luger's Death Caused By "Human Error"

Friday's accidental death of Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was not caused by the track, according to Olympic officials.

The International Luge Federation and Olympic officials have stated the deadly accident was a result of "human error" because the Georgian luger, traveling almost 90 mph, was late coming out of the second to last turn and overcompensated for the timing error.

"This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem, he eventually lost control of the sled, resulting in the tragic accident," reads the statement.
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The officials have agreed to make a "change in the ice profile" and raise the wall that Kumaritashvili was catapulted over, but only "to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again."

Ok, let’s start this rant where it feels most natural to me – the Olympics in general. Right now, the sole purpose of the Olympics is to gather from all corners of the world, the best athletes of their trade and have them compete to be called the world champion. Fine. Makes 100% sense to me. But it seems like as the Olympics evolve, they have become this thing of how completely ridiculous can we watch one person train to be?

I’m partial to the ice skaters – during the winter Olympics, which seems an appropriate point of reference given that Vancouver is currently hosting them. Back in the day, you’d watch the Nancy Kerrigan’s and Kristi Yamaguchi’s of the world skate to almost perfection. Triple Lutz, Double Axle, Camel Spins and the ever edge-of-your-seat Quadruple Lutz that it seemed no one landed. So it’s fair to say that even then, skaters were pushing the edge – finding a way to supersede their predecessor. An almost evolution of the sport, so-to-say. I agree that as people become more talented that the games should look for more challenge and pressure so that participating in the Olympics isn’t something just anyone can do.

But I will tell you what… it’s like they have sucked the viewer anticipation out of the whole thing. I watched ice skating last night for a little bit before I turned it off saying this is just ridiculous. It’s like when karate became an “art” and you get points for certain moves but in any street fight would get your damn ass kicked while pausing between hits to wait for a judge to mark your point (*clears throat – Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal*). That’s what ice skating has become – a point system that no speculator can even comprehend for one. Two, they have made the sport so complicated that it’s likely that you will see people fall in almost every skate. Granted, there are some that don’t but somehow even when those guys don’t fall, they come in 2nd or 3rd place to someone who did fall because they crossed their foot over two-times instead of once before jumping. Something complicated – or so I’m expected understand. How the hell do you watch the friggin games and know what the hell’s going on half the time? Furthermore, has the need to add more and create unnatural complexities really proved worth it in the end?

I’d say no. And beyond that, there has been the removal of really and truly waiting for the final scores to post because it’s just that close of a performance between gold and silver.

All that to say that it is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing to even allude to the notion that this Luger’s death was caused by human error. Are you kidding me? Ok, riddle me this…

1. I tried to Google how many Luge deaths there have been over the last 10 years. And you know what? It doesn’t even rank. While the sport is considered dangerous (and really rather pointless to me), people aren’t just flying off the track and dying every year at the Olympics in the Luge competition.

2. If it wasn’t somewhat the responsibility of the Olympics Officials and the construction of these apparatuses, why is it then that they almost immediately removed like what?! 100 yards of the Luge track. I’m sorry… they what? Right, removed an entire football field of track to make it safer. I definitely hear human error in that “slight track correction” the old Olympics Officials implemented. And what the hell? Why was there 100-more yards than usual in the first place?

3. By their own accord – The officials have agreed to make a "change in the ice profile" and raise the wall that Kumaritashvili was catapulted over, but only "to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again." BUT ONLY are really the words that stick out there. Like we’re fixing it BUT ONLY because this dumbass couldn’t get control of the ice skate under his ass long enough to not jack him however many feet in the air at 90 miles an hour to his ultimate human error of a death. Really Olympic Officials? I get what you’re selling. I’m just not buying it.


I happen to find all of this just down right outrageous. This need to make it bigger, better, faster and break some kind of record has really gotten out of hand. Fine. This I actually get. Such is evolution. And we evolve. Fine. Fine. Fair. But it’s like when some shit like this happens, I want someone to just stop and be real for a minute. Like – whoa dude, we fucked up… hard-core. The intent was not for anyone to die here. The purpose was to watch someone do something we’d never seen before. That being said, ideally you try and compensate for as many things as you can anticipate going wrong in an infinite amount of situations. We sure as shit did NOT see this happening, obviously. Now that we know based on this horrific tragedy, we are doing all we can to make his family as whole as physically possible while taking the proper steps to scale back the track and make some additions to ensure the remaining lugers safety. Then they need to pay some undisclosed multi-million dollar settlement to this kids family. Friggin 21-years old… an Olympian… dead. And some official comes on to say it’s the fault of his human error. Bullshit. I call bullshit.

It’s damn appalling. End of story.