Winter Olympics 2010.....

What a tragic start. I dont know what the feeling is in the UK, but the dreadfull accident involving Georgia's Nobar Komaritashvili has certainly been a wake-up call to Canadians and Americans. Everybody involved in the opening ceremony, and in the media is trying to do the 'carry on regardless' approach, and the brilliant opening ceromony continues.

Nobody can stop thinking though, that an aspiring 21 year old athlete, lost his life earlier today/yesterday, in an unbelievable fashion.

Its not clear here whether that particular course will be used, or whether that event will be cancelled entirely. We'll see.

So sad.

I woke up to this story this morning and thought exactly the same as you. A young athlete fulfilling a lifetime ambitions by competing for his country at the Winter Olympic games, only to have his life taken away in a tragic accident. Kumaritashvili's death was also an eerie echo of an event that marred his sport's introduction to the Olympic Games at the Innsbruck Olympics in 1964.

The most shocking revelation is that the track designer Laurenz Kosichek, a senior associate at an Edmonton, Alberta-based engineering and design firm, had never seen a bobsled race before being given the design job in 2004. In an interview he told reporters “I knew as much about bobsled, luge as probably any average person does,” Kosichek said during an interview with the network. “Which was next to nothing.”

I am sure that the Canadians and Americans will adopt the 'show must go on approach', though with a little caution to the dangers and challenges on the athletes.

It was a very moving moment when most of the crowd rose to give respectful applause, to the seven remaining members of the Georgian team, who decided to stay and compete.

It would seem that this young man has been the victim of an attempt to make his chosen sport more 'exciting'. Utterly tragic.

Very very sad indeed......

Was pretty shocking news, RIP to the lad. Wouldn't have agreed with cancelling the event - would benefit his memory more to actually hold the event ("It's what he would've wanted" etc.).

Can anyone figure out what's happening in the Luge? What to look for technically?

One slide down the ice by a lardy bloke looks exactly like another to me, spent half-hour last night watching and listening to the 'commentary', still can't fathom it. :S

While it may look like a case of "hurl yourself down the icy slope quickly", there are a number of nuances to it in terms of steering and the impact being just a few inches out can have.

R.I.P to the lad.

It seems to be getting exciting tonight over in Canada, as its the final of the mens hockey. Canada vs USA. Doesn't get much bigger than this really.

Yeah the USA/Canada thing is probably like us playing Germany in the World Cup final, plus Ice Hockey is the only 'American' sport that I could enjoy watching week in, week out.