By Hannah Schwab
On February 12, 2010, a great tragedy went down in Olympic history. Georgian luge member Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in a horrific luge accident that has been broadcasted all over the world. Nodar was doing a practice run on the fastest luge track in the world. The track defied the rules of the game by making it longer and making steep so lugers could reach speeds up to 95 mph.
Nodar was near the end of the track going 88 mph when he and his sled hit an inside wall causing the rider to fly off the sled and off the track. He hit a concrete pole that had no padding and was pronounced dead on impact. This is a great tragedy, but what makes it more tragic is the fact that the whole thing was caught on tape.
The lead story for every news network for that day was the death of the poor Olympian. On NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams, the main anchor had the decency to warn the audience that the images of Nodar’s death were not for the faint of heart, but they still aired the footage.
The footage aired all over until February 16 when the NBC news president pulled the plug and said they were not to air the images until they had permission from the 21 year olds family. Following NBC, YouTube and many other internet video companies pulled the video from their sites.
The video of Nodar’s death was a horrific thing and it was not in the best interest of the journalists to air something of that nature. But, because of that video there has been some good that has come out of it. The luge track where Nodar died was closed because it was too dangerous for even the most experienced lugers. Also, many people have gained respect for people, who train in the sport.
Whether the video is seen as good or bad, we must remember the life that was lost during that video and imagine what his family is going through by reliving his fatal crash over and over again.
Photo Courtesy of Google Images
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