Required thoughts on Nodar Karitashvili (RIP)

It's tragic, and it was an accident.

Was it okay for the accident to be aired on TV? I think so. I can't fathom what his family feels, but I realize how (I think) I would feel in a similar position. When you are an olympic athlete, the whole world watches: it watches you succeed, it watches you fail, and sometimes, unfortunately, it watches you die.

It saddens me, of course, to think that some stations and publications are probably airing it over and over for the sake of ratings. I don't think that airing such a thing is wrong in and of itself, but only because I feel that this is simply part of a bigger story that needs no censoring. To do it simply out of the desire to gain is, by definition, exploitation.

Should revisions be made to the design of the course? Shouldn't safety be considered further?

A lot of criticism is hitting the course designers, the Olympic committee, the sport as a whole, and so forth. Everyone wants someone to blame. I myself pondered the possibilities of making the luge-tube an actual tube, a full-pipe... others have suggested padding and crash guards, but seriously, an unprotected body flying upwards from 90mph isn't going to be helped by padding. I'm also not intimately familiar with the specifics of the sport itself, regulations dealing with the tube design, et cetera et cetera. As with all things, I think it unwise to speak in depth about something without the fact and knowledge to support.

I am not known for my undying faith in governments, corporations, or otherwise, but even I have an awful hard time thinking that this was some incredible oversight on the part of... anyone.

It was an accident. It is an incredibly dangerous sport. The man loved what he did, and to be honest, I hope that someday I die by the hand of my own passion.