Winter Olympics: Olympic bosses were warned about luge

Organisers of last year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver were warned about potential problems with the luge run - notably record-shattering speeds - almost a full year before an accident that killed a young competitor, newly released emails revealed.

On his final practice run at the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, lost control on a curve and was catapulted into the air. He crashed into an unprotected metal pole and died instantly.

The fatal accident cast a pall over the opening ceremony of the Games held later the same day.

With the first anniversary of the accident coming this weekend, the revelations, contained in emails obtained by the Globe and Mail newspaper and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, are a potential embarrassment to the former chief executive of the Vancouver Olympic organising committee, John Furlong.

The email chain was spurred by a letter sent by the International Luge Federation (ILF) 11 months before the Games to the German designers of the luge run, voicing alarm about how fast it was proving to be. A copy of the letter was seen by Furlong who expressed his concern to the organising committee.

"Embedded in this note (cryptic as it may be) is a warning that the track is in their view too fast and someone could get badly hurt," Mr Furlong wrote in one email. "An athlete gets badly injured or worse and I think the case could be made we were warned and did nothing."

- Independent