Winter Olympics: men's singles luge tragedy

Felix Loch and David Moeller claimed gold and silver for Germany in the Men’s singles luge event, while defending champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy finished third and Britain’s Adam Rosen just missed out on a top-15 finish. The competition went ahead at the Whistler Sliding Centre, Vancouver following an emotional weekend after the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training accident.

The fatal accident occurred on Friday 12th February, just hours before the official opening ceremony and the main Luge event. On the last turn of his final training run, 21-year-old Kumaritashvili, who was competing in his first Olympics, lost control of his sled at approximately 90 mph and was flung over the protective barriers around the track and hit a steel support beam. He died later in hospital from his injuries; leaving the rest of the competitors shocked and emotional. Kumaritashvili’s team-mate, Levan Gureshidze, withdrew from the Games on Saturday but Georgia decided to compete as a tribute to Kumaritashvili and took part in the opening ceremony as planned, sporting black armbands in memory of the young athlete.

Unfortunately, the Whistler Sliding centre has seen numerous training accidents over the past week - including gold medal favourite Armin Zoeggeler of Italy and Romania's female luger Violeta Stramaturaru, who was taken to hospital after being knocked unconscious for a few minutes. Despite these accidents and Kumaritashvili’s death, the International Luge Federation (FIL) decided that the main competition would go ahead but changes were made to ensure the safety of the competitors. The starting height of the male’s track was moved down by 200m, making it the same as the women’s, thus anticipating a cut in speeds of around 6.25 mph. Walls were raised on dangerous curves, including the final curve where Kumaritashvili’s sled flipped off, to avoid the more accidents occurring. FIL chief Svein Romstad says plans are being discussed for a slower track to be made for 2014 Games, which is a move that will surely be welcomed by everyone.

The main event on Sunday 14th February was unquestionably going to be a moving competition, but the 36 competitors, who each wore a black strip on their helmets in respect to Kumaritashvili, still delivered a thrilling spectacle and thankfully there were no crashes in any of the four runs. Germany’s Felix Loch, 20, took first position after the first run and maintained his lead for the remaining three runs, seeing him take gold with a time of 3.13.085 minutes. Close behind was his team-mate, David Moeller, who took silver and was only 0.679 seconds slower. Defending champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy had been favourite to win the event, aiming to match former German luger Georg Hackl’s record of three successive Olympic golds, but he was out-classed by the two Germans and finished in the bronze medal position.

Britain’s sole slider Adam Rosen narrowly missed out on a top-15 finish as he was pushed down into 16th place on the last run. Meaning the best result by a British luger remains that of 15th place, achieved by Jeremy Palmer-Tomkinson at Lake Placid in 1980. Rosen was happy with his finish however as only in October he crashed on this very course and was left with a dislocated hip and ruptured sciatic nerves. Back on track and more determined than ever, he is preparing for the Sochi Games in Russia in four years' time.

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