Slamming the brakes on Games danger-seekers

Citius, Altius, Fortius - faster, higher, stronger has been the Olympic motto since the 1924 Games in Paris, but has the time come for the brakes to be applied to the danger-seekers?

In the wake of a Georgian luger's death at this year's Winter Olympics, the question is being asked: "When is fast too fast?"

Maybe when it results in death, as was the case for Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died in pre-Games luge training on a track which organisers boasted was the world's fastest.

After the 21-year-old's fatal 150kph smash, the need for ever more speed suddenly dissipated amid a number of hasty modifications made to the Whistler track, which US bobsleigher Shauna Rohbuck slammed as "stupid fast" after more than a dozen spectacular bob crashes.

It might look thrilling to the spectator, but sometimes it's a journey through the pain barrier for the athlete.

Ask Swiss pilot Daniel Schmid, whose ambitions of Olympic stardom matched anyone's - until he took a high speed tumble.

"My health is more important to me than hurtling down the track like I'm tired of life," said Schmid.

One bobsleigh pilot, Dutchman Edwin van Calker pulled out of the tournament, claiming his nerve had failed him.

At 150kph, sport truly is a matter of life and, sadly, death

Organisers have insisted throughout that Kumaritashvili's demise was down essentially to driver error.

Yet even the most experienced competitors, including four-time men's bob champion Andre Lange, say the track remains "really challenging, difficult and unbelievably fast.

"Crashes can happen. Corners 11 to 13 aren't called 50-50 for nothing," says Lange.

Those are short odds when a competitor's life is potentially at stake.

Speed doesn't have to equal danger though, says International Ski Federation (FIS) president Gian Franco Kasper, even taking into account spectacular crashes by the likes of experienced Swede Anja Paerson in the alpine events.

Paerson took a major tumble on the final "Hot Air" jump of the Franz's Run course - where competitors travel at more than 120kph and fly for 60 metres.

But she got back up to claim super-combined bronze a day later for a sixth career Olympic medal.

"It was a little fast perhaps for the ladies' speed events," said Kasper.

But he insisted: "I do not think it was dangerous. They are professionals and know exactly how far they can go."

How far was 'only' to hospital in the case of a clutch of four-man bob bobsleighers, Romanian luger Violeta Stramaturaru and Romanian skier Edith Miklos.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili struck a chord with many when he said "no sports mistake is supposed to be fatal," but, at breakneck speed, mistakes happen.

The battered and the bruised live to fight another sporting day.

But with Kumaritashvili, it was more than an Olympic dream that died at these Games.