International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Thursday that assuring the safety of competitors was the responsibility of "everyone" involved in the running of the Vancouver Games.
Responding to a question on the circumstances leading to the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the day of the opening ceremony, Rogge said track safety was an issue to be taken seriously by everyone involved.
"Everyone is responsible," said the IOC chief as the chairman of the IOC's medical commission revealed Rogge had asked it to review the accident rate at the Games.
"The track's conception is the responsibility of the (luge and bobsleigh) federations, its construction is the responsibility of VANOC (Vancouver organising committee), training and competition is the responsibility of the federations, and we, the IOC, have a moral responsibility to make sure the athletes compete in the best possible conditions."
Kumaritashvili's fatal crash left his native Georgia in mourning and cast a dark shadow over the opening days of the 2010 Olympics.
Despite no further fatalities, a number of athletes in bobsleigh and luge have since crashed on the notoriously fast track at the Whistler Sliding Centre, prompting further complaints and calls for an investigation.
Amid new claims that safety standards have not been properly observed, the International Luge Federation (FIL) said last week it will investigate all incidents.
While Rogge admitted that the venue had to be investigated, the Belgian called for light to be shed on whether athletes were given enough practice on the track prior to competition.
Rogge also queried whether some athletes had the top level experience needed to handle the high speeds on the Whistler track.
"These investigations should take into account the infrastructure and the track itself, but also the rules of competition and the number of times each athlete was allowed a practice run on the track," Rogge added.
"Finally they must also look into the qualifying criteria for the Games, and on whether all athletes had the necessary experience."
Rogge said observers from the organising committee of Sochi, the host of the Games in 2014, would be invited to all subsequent discussions, at which the key issue would be "safety first".
Meanwhile IOC medical commission chairman Professor Arne Ljungqvist said: "We have taken on board a request from our president to make a careful review of what has happened here in relation to what's happened in Salt Lake (2002) and Turin (2006) and draw our own conclusions."
"A preliminary review tells us that they (accidents) are not remarkable in the sense of frequency related to earlier Games but as usual the accidents that do occur during the Winter Games are generally a little more serious than those during Summer Games," he added.
It could result in recommendations for the international federations, he said.
Kumaritashvili, 21, was a competitor in the Luge World Cup series and had gone down the Whistler luge track 26 times before his fatal crash.
Copyright 2010  AFP American Edition
