I like the Winter Olympics a lot better than the Summer Olympics. I actually watch the Winter Olympics. I was very sad to see the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili die during his training run today. Now I will be very nervous watching a contest I usually enjoy a lot. They say the track is too fast and there is no padding against steel beams that are erected along the sides near the bottom. I guess they will have to fix that by the day after tomorrow when the real luge competition begins. The opening ceremony is beginning now. I hear it will be much different from the Chinese opening ceremony.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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“O Canada”, which by the way puts our anthem to shame, she was terrific.
yeah, singing half in French. If they tried that in this country there would be a riot.
Well, to be fair, French IS an official language in Canada.
That’s the anthem we all sing – at least it has been all my life – in both languages. Throughout school, at all sporting events, etc.
When sporting events in America involve a Canadian team (the Blue Jays, for example) they do both anthems. But I don’t remember any of the Canadian anthem being in French. Maybe I just didn’t notice before.
Maybe they don’t use the bilingual version outside of Can. Esp. if non-Fr singers are performing…?
Well of course, because French singers are way too effete for US crowds to tolerate. 😉
The American national anthem is is warlike poem – how prophetic – and a terrible, unsingable, unattractive piece of music.
I’ve always thought “America The Beautiful” would have made a FAR better national anthem.
It would, in every way on every level.
Ever read the words to La Marseillaise, the French national anthem?
Didn’t it start as a drinking song? That always explained so much to me.
I never heard that, but it sounds plausible!
The melody was from a drinking song. Thelyrics were completely separate.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from “Defence of Fort McHenry”,[1] a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812.
The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song, written by John Stafford Smith for the Anacreontic Society, a men’s social club in London. “The Anacreontic Song” (or “To Anacreon in Heaven”),
We agree on something. Wonder of wonders. I’m finally getting to see this now.
Loved all the shots of Vancouver too. Been to that lovely city many times. It’s one of the cleanest, most beautiful cities on this planet. You just feel healthy being there.
Thanks. Vancouver is a nice city and the closest city to home these days.
Wow…gorgeous.
That is beautiful. Nice work. Love how the clouds roll in like waves. And the ferries! Love those.
I hope NBC is done exploiting that boy’s dying moments for entertainment value. Just because you have video doesn’t mean you have to run it.
Just wouldn’t have mattered. He got into the air coming out of the last turn (last recorded speed: 88 MPH) and flew into an I-beam. Even if the blunt trauma was survivable the human head/neck isn’t built for rapid deceleration. See: Basal skull fractures.
Catch netting would be worth a look into but even that could be problematic without some modeling and testing.
It seems likely the track has some core design flaws that will be difficult to address the week of the competition.
Scary stuff.
I had hoped to attend the ’96 Atlanta summer games with my older brother but didn’t. I was out in Utah just prior to the 2002 games but didn’t stay long enough to see them. We (I) were hoping to travel up to Vancouver for these games but there were other obligations. Some day.
I was sorry to hear about the Georgian athlete but a bit surprised to see the footage run so many times.
Completely insensitive and disrespectful of MSNBC, IMO.
link
Out west, the opening ceremony is “less than half an hour away.” Why so late?
I nearly missed it because I got so fed up with all the excruciatingly uninteresting preliminary fluff. Geeez! They could have cut two hours out of the whole thing by just showing us what we wanted to see.
The luge, skeleton, and bobsledders were complaining that the track up here was too fast during testing last winter. Some of the luge and skeleton guys have been working out at my gym, I don’t know if Nodar Kumaritashvili was one of them though.
People die on the mountains all the time in Whistler, goes with the territory. This one looks like a result of bad design rather than a common accident.
The opening ceremonies were beautiful, not just technically but because Canada did an autobiography that was tone-on perfect, from the Inuit creation, through salmon and whales, the voyageur and the Celtic fiddles, to the very modern and open society at the end.
I couldn’t help but compare it to Atlanta’s “good ole’ boys in pickup trucks” to create a sudden urge to move to Canada.
someone discovered on YouTube–he was great.
Mark Grimmette is our hometown hero here in Muskegon, Michigan. He’s actually my sister-in-laws nephew. I shot a video of him years ago when he was training for his first Olympics. I hope they get that luge track fixed before he goes, or anyone else for that matter.
What a tragedy knowing Nodar died a few hours before his life’s goal of being in the Olympics! So sad. The moment of silence for him last night was so powerful. I couldn’t help being overcome with emotion for him, his team, and his family. My heart goes out to all of them!
As pointed out, a head injury no matter the speed can have dire consequences! Seeing the video of this young man’s death tells me he died instantly. There has been much uproar about showing this video to the public (YouTube was crazy last night in pulling down videos of it as fast as they appeared). I agree. Death is a personal thing, but some of us just have to know what happened. It’s a human thing I guess. My ex-boyfriend of 6 years (’97 to 2003) was murdered at the end of last year via his ‘friend’ running him over with his truck intentionally. I had to go into the hospital and see Roland anyway. I had to see for myself what evil had done to him to rally justice on his behalf (and we will!) and I think showing the video of Nodar’s death shows us all how dangerous the luge really is (when most of us think it’s an easy sport….”just sledding down the mountain”). The lugers truly are the heroes of the Winter Olympics and the video shows us how just a split second of lifting the head, too much speed, or poor design of a track can be detrimental! Life is so precious from one second to the next. We will all learn from this and make sure it never happens again.
Showing the video, ONCE, was acceptable in my opinion. Showing the crash at least twice more before the opening ceremony was just a ratings grab. Even worse, close ups of his dying, bloody face are all over the internet. As the mother of boys his age, this breaks my heart.
I agree. I saw the video once but don’t care to see it again either. 🙂
I haven’t seen it, and don’t care to see it at all, ever. Showing it once was, maybe, OK. Showing it over and over and over again was, among other things, vulgar.
Here`s vulgar also.
Today I watched a “luger” being asked about the shorter course.
he said it was not that great seeing as they had to now start at the “ladies” spot.
“Kinda boring”.
The guy was sickening & I`d dare to venture he grew “luger balls” only after they lowered the starting line.
Everyone was concerned about this track before a young man was needlessly killed. (I know, these things happen)
But this piece of work was bummed because he had to start where the ladies do.
How so below him.
Unfortunately, I don’t think he did die instantly. From I could tell from the early reports, he died at the hospital.
Well, my Roland was technically dead even though his brain was still functioning (though, when they took off one life support his brain didn’t react to it….the brain was ‘alive’, but not really) after his brain injury. He was dead on impact, but “lived” for 4 days, and from what I could tell (even in the bloody photos) this young luger wasn’t ‘alive’.
I’m sorry for your loss. That’s a horrifying story. I agree about his likely condition after impact. He may not have suffered, although we can’t be sure.
The Olympic Committee has now decided to start the luges at a lower level on the track, because they were all starting at a higher point (the official point) and it was in part causing them to have too much speed on the track. This might solve it. Not sure.
see my above comment.
If starting at the “ladies” spot saves lives, then be a man about it, no.