Day Two: Oh No They Didn’t

Word is that — yes — the luge competition will go on.  Tonight.  In prime-time.  Notwithstanding the fact that a guy died on the track yesterday.  AP / NBC confirms it:

Fast and frightening, yes. Responsible for the death of a luger, no. 

Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any delays in competition and even doubled up on the schedule in the wake of the horrifying accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia.

They said they would raise the wall where the slider flew off the track and make an unspecified “change in the ice profile” – but only as a preventative measure “to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again.” …

The International Luge Federation and Vancouver Olympic officials said their investigation showed that the crash was the result of human error and that “there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”

Last night, the local NBC affiliate in Chicago (who sent a reporter to Vancouver for some unknown reason) said that the B.C. coroner’s office and the RCMP were conducting an investigation and would not release the track to training, much less competition, until the investigation was complete.  The investigation, it seems, took no longer than an investigation on the Dan Ryan at rush-hour.  Positively criminal.

Remainder of the docket, and other thoughts, post-jump.

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