CBC Investigates Luger's Death at Vancouver Olympics

In the not-so-subtly-titled episode "Death at the Olympics," on Friday the Canadian Broadcasting Company sets its sights on uncovering the true story behind the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the morning of opening day for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics (follow the link for a video preview).  The official version is relatively cut and dry; essentially no deficiencies in the track were found by the International Luge Federation.  In other words, operator error.  Another popular theory kicked around immediately after Kumaritashvili's gruesome death (and, fair warning, the above link contains the grisly video) was that he simply had not practiced enough and was ill-prepared for the course. 

And, despite some public grumbling from Kumaritashvili's father, this was generally accepted by the Olympic-viewing public. 

Now, however, the CBC has come forward with emails from VANOC head John Furlong that were obtained through the Canadian Equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act that appear to show Olympic organizers were privately concerned.  So says the CBC:

An International Luge Federation (FIL) report found his death was an unforeseeable accident, but internal emails obtained by the CBC through British Columbia's Access to Information Act suggest Olympic organizers knew the track might be dangerous.

VANOC had been copied on a March 2009 memo that the FIL sent to the track's designer. The federation said that speeds on the track were 20 km/h faster than expected.
The revelation apparently also worried VANOC head John Furlong, who wrote an internal email to senior staff. 

In an email sent after receiving a copy of the letter, Furlong wrote: “Embedded in this note (cryptic as it may be) is a warning that the track is in their view too fast and someone could get badly hurt. An athlete gets badly injured or worse, and I think the case could be made we were warned and did nothing.”

Now, of course, the issue is that VANOC "did nothing."  And all this while Furlong is pushing his official history of the Vancouver Games in his book Patriot Hearts: Inside the Olympics That Changed a Country.  (I'm assuming the premise is explained in the book.  Somehow I doubt he has a chapter entitled 'Balancing Budgets by Borrowing $187 Million from the Federal and Provincial Governments.')  Naturally, Furlong has claimed that all the correspondence was routine and that he never intended to convey that the track was unsafe.  If you're in Canada, you can watch on Friday the 11th; it looks like it will be posted on the web eventually.  

As for Sochi, organizers have claimed since the day of the tragedy that the Sochi track would slower and safer.  Everything I've found says the Sochi organizers were looking to bring the top speed down from 90mph down to 84 or 85mph, which would at least seem to indicate that maybe, just maybe, the track in Vancouver was a little fast.  I certainly think this is a cautionary tale we should never forget, clearly, however, not everybody agrees with me.