Safety debate rages as tragic athlete buried

Published on Saturday 20 February 2010 19:30

THE Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was buried before thousands of mourners yesterday as debate raged over the safety of the track that claimed his life at the Vancouver Olympics.

The open coffin bearing the 21-year-old, his body wrapped in the red-and-white Georgian flag, was borne down streets cleared of ice and interred in the grounds of the church in his home town of Bakuriani.

The ceremony came a week after he lost control of his sled and slammed into a steel pillar at 90 miles per hour.

Villagers and fellow sportsmen carrying Georgian flags lined the route through the sleepy winter resort town of Bakuriani, 110 miles west of the capital Tbilisi.

Mourners, including Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili wearing the white jacket of the Georgian Olympic team, looked on in silence.

"He died for Georgia, he died for this sport," Kumaritashvili's distraught father David, himself a former luger, said.

Kumaritashvili's death on a training run hours before the opening ceremony has sparked debate over the safety of the Whistler track, built to be the fastest in the world.

The Games organisers and the International Luge Federation (FIL) blamed the accident on a misjudgement by the luger, but then raised the barrier at the fatal curve and shortened the track to reduce speed. Georgians have expressed disbelief that a mistake could cost Kumaritashvili his life.

His coach and uncle, Felix, said his view of the track had been impeded by shades erected by organisers. "They put a shade up at that turn and despite the fact the track organisers were warned many times to sort it out, they didn't," he said.

The FIL promised a review of the accident.