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.

Looking Back...

Unsurprisingly, the 2010 Winter Olympics that were held in Vancouver, British Columbia were voted top Canadian news story of the year in the annual survey of newsrooms across the country by The Canadian Press:

Forty-three years after the Centennial flame flickered to life on Parliament Hill, Canadians came together for 17 glorious days in February beneath the glow of another fiery symbol of peace and goodwill: the Olympic torch. 

In fact, according to surveys, 8 in 10 Canadians "still feel a sense of pride from the Games" and, anyway, could 3.6 million pairs of mittens be wrong?

And to top it off, in a report that was released with Canadian parliamentarians on Winter break and only a week before Christmas, VANOC reported that the $1.884 billion dollar operations budget resulted in neither surplus nor deficit.  This was generally reported without inquiry across Canada, though a few, like Bob Mackin, asked the obvious question about whether a budget can be 'balanced' when it required $187 million from Canadian taxpayers to balance it?  And should Canadian citizens be concerned that VANOC released no quarterly reports, why the names of senior managers and directors are nowhere to be found on the report and why there is footage of a Shred-it paper shredding truck in the VANOC parking lot recently.  Aw, hell, I'll let him ask the tough questions.

The Canadians should be careful; pretty soon they'll be making Salt Lake 2002 look transparent.