Death of Nodar Kumaritashvili

Born 3 years before Georgia gained its independence from the Soviet Union, Nodar Kumaritashvili was introduced to Luge by his grandfather and took up the sport which involves lying on a flat sled down slope at speeds of 140 k/mh or 87 mph. His debut at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada was also all of his training resulted in his death after he lost control on the last turn of the course and was thrown out of his sled and into a unprotected steel pole after going 143.6 km/h (89.2 mph). He succumbed to his injuries at the nearby hospital and since then safety measures have put in place to prevent other luge related deaths like Nodar's.