Vancouver 2010- Olympic Hopeful Dies In Horrific High Speed Luge Crash

An Olympics star has died in an horrific 90mph luge accident at the winter games.
 
Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run at the games in Whistler, Canada. The Georgian hopeful  flew off the track and into a metal pole..

Medics were quickly on the scene.

Kumaritashvili was then placed on a stretcher with blood pouring from his head and taken away in an ambulance.

With injuries as bad as this, it would have been a miracle if he had suvived.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the death had cast a shadow over the Winter Olympics.

A spokesman for the Georgian delegation said the country was considering pulling out of the games in the wake of the tragedy as a mark of respect.

Witnesses told how the 21-year-old crashed at one of the fastest points, going nearly 100 mph, near the bottom of the track on the final 270-degree turn.

He hit both sides of the wall before being hurled over the top and smashing into the pole at the side of the track

Earlier Italian Armin Zoeggler, the 2002 and 2006 gold medalist, also crashed and thankfully was not badly injured. Again on Wednesday, there were several accidents during women's luge training runs. Romania's Violeta Stramaturaru was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital.

The track is widely-regarded as one of the most dangerous in the sport.

There was a lot of hype for this year's Winter Olympics, but this incident has cast a shadow over the evnt.