Watching the Crash Video

 With the announcement of the final report of the FIL to the IOC about Nodar's death coming on Monday the 12th of April.  I felt compelled to finally watch the crash video and see for myself what actually happened.  Thus far I have been able to avoid it.  I have seen and been in a few horrible crashes in my luge experience.  They are hard to watch. 

My worst crash was in Igls, Austria.  The only other luge course to take a life.  I crashed in curve 10.  A curve that is nearly two stories tall.  I hit the "woods"  the wooden barrier that is supposed to throw you back down to the ice and keep you in the track.  It did its job and the impact broke my wrist, dislocated my hip, crushed nerves in my knee and ankle and gave me one hell of a concussion.  But, I lived. 

After my first impact of hitting the woods I remembered a story about a yogi who was hated by the local men in his town.  One day they kidnapped him, tied him up and threw him into the Ganges River.  Where he was from, the river was rapid and rocky and had huge waterfalls.  The men meant to kill him.  But, he said he stayed relaxed and had faith that everything was going to be OK and he was. So, I was determined to do the same thing.  I relaxed my body and absorbed the second impact of being thrown down onto the ice, a fall of nearly 25 feet at 60 - 70 miles per hour.  I just kept chanting to myself that everything would be OK, over and over again.  I was hauled away in an Ambulance but, managed to walk out of the emergency room and go back to my hotel.  I wish it would have been the same for Nodar.

Here is what I could see from the crash footage, with the shades up there are gaps in what the cameras can see . . . he had a good aggressive start, he was not holding back in any way, 4 paddles and then laid down (we call that "settle"), he laid back all the way with his head back to check his form - again aggressive and pushing himself, it shows confidence.  I don't see any major problems until I hear his feet down, it's a tell tale sign something is wrong, we NEVER put our feet down - unless we are already out of control, as he enters the curve - he shot straight to the top of it - gravity dictates your life at this point - where there is more G force it pushes you up - he must have missed the steer at the entrance of the curve - I don't know how he got there because of the shades but, just seeing that I know the only place he can go is straight down, he might have even already hit the wooden barrier at the top of the curve - it's supposed to throw you down into the curve and keep you in the track the problem is that this curve has another pressure point (a point of greater then 1G) when he got to it it pushed him straight up the profile of the curve again and I think he must have hit the wooden barrier there because he was on his side and off of the sled a bit. He hit the "short" wall - we only call it that because it is in the belly of the curve - and the force propelled him into the air. I put my hand over the screen after that and the sound of him hitting the post has tears running down my face. It was lighting fast, mercifully fast, he never knew.

"I Slide" makes WCAX Channel 3 News!

Here is the wonderful piece from WCAX News Channel 3.  Thanks so much to Jack Thurston for the coverage!

Slider's Video Diary / RACE DAY, Sunday, March 28th, 2010

Here is the race day video.  My computer crashed twice during the rendering of it and I lost a full 1/3 of the footage shot.  I did my best to salvage what I could.  Awesome photo of the race can be found here:
http://www.shadywood.net/masters/

Slider's Video Diary /Saturday, March 27th, 2010

KENNEDY, DEARBORNE, WIGHT HAUSMAN WIN GOLD!

LAKE PLACID, NY (Mar 28, 2010) – Duncan Kennedy re-established himself as the U.S. National Masters Men's Champion with nearly a full-second victory in the 2010 National Masters Championships. Bill Dearborn took home the Gold Medal in the Senior Masters category, while Cynthea Wight Hausman laid claim to the Women's title.

Kennedy's runs of 44.648 and 44.624 were not only fast, but represented a consistency that eluded the rest of the sliders in the top 5.

Larry Dolan earned the Silver Medal, 0.805 seconds behind Kennedy. After swapping fast times with Kennedy during the week's training, Dolan had minor issues in the chicane, costing him the majority of the margin on his first run before securing his result with a solid second run.

Jim Murphy earned the Bronze medal, but nearly let it get away when he hit the chicane walls not once, but twice, on his first run. The resulting 46.344 second run was not only the worst for Murphy this week, but it slotted him in 5th position after the first run, setting the stage for one of the larger moments of drama during the race. In stark contrast to the first run, Murphy's second run of 45.362 was his best of the week.

Gordy Sheer followed Murphy down the track on the second run, owing to his first-run fourth place time of 46.298 second. Sheer's 45.860 mark improved from his first-run time but fell short of surpassing Murphy.

Brett West followed, slotted third after his first run time of 46.265, took to the track with a lead of 0.079 over Murphy. West's second run time of 45.589 was a person best time, keeping him ahead of Sheer, but coming up 0.148 short of Murphy and the podium.

In the Senior Masters Division, for sliders over the age of 50, Bill Dearborn's runs of 46.180 and 46.141 were exceptionally consistent and were enough to earn him a victory margin in excess of 2 seconds over his Adirondack Luge Club teammate Bob Young.

Young, father of current Senior National Team sliders Stacy Young, negotiated the course in 47.106 and 47.223 seconds to earn the Silver Medal.

The Bronze medal will travel home with Ty Danco. Danco, quite clearly the Court Jester of the start house, checked in with runs of 47.294 and 47.623.

Jim Mossey registered a very impressive effort in 4th, after only 1 day of training. Meanwhile, Dick Genovese received renewed and rejuvenated respect with a 5th place finish at the age of 72 years young.

Cynthea Wight Hausman came to Lake Placid on a mission. Moved by the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili last month in Vancouver, she formed "I Slide 4 Nodar" as a charity and did the only thing that seemed natural – return to sliding after a 10 year absence and used that as a vehicle to raise funds for Nodar's family.

After a week of training, Hausman will return home with not only a Gold Medal but a healthy start to her fund.

"I never thought I could win a National Championships on a training sled," she remarked.  "But, the real winner is the charity."

Wight Hausman chronicled her exploits during the week on her blog at
http://islide4nodar.blogspot.com/.

Rookie slider Peggy Mousaw of Lake Placid, NY earned the Silver Medal, and former National Team Member Deb Sanders-Dame leaves with the Bronze medal.

The Adirondack / Wasatch Challenge Cup will be heading eastward once again.  The revised rules this year pitted a two-slider team of Brett West and Matt Gannon representing the Adirondack Luge Club against Bill Dearborn and Paul Suplinskas representing Wasatch.

The combined time for ADK was 3:04.663 seconds, while WLC checked in with 3:05.890 seconds resulting in a 1.227 second Adirondack victory.

Slider's Log / Sunday, March 28th, 2010

2010 USA LUGE MASTER'S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The day started out windy and warmer but, still cold enough for lots of folks to cram into the start house.  This race is important to me for many reasons.  The first and foremost is to raise awareness of the "Nodar Charity Fund", second to raise lots of money to help support his family during these hard times, and last to get together with lots of old friends, make new ones and Oh, vie for a national championship title.  I have not earned a national title since I was a junior racer (at 19, I was Jr. National Champion for the second year in a row).  Yes, I am here to race.  Even on a silly training sled, even out of shape, even though I haven't been on a sled for 10 years - the desire to be the fastest, never goes away.  I don't think it ever will.

Wonderful photos taken by Laura Murphy
More here:
http://www.shadywood.net/masters/2010/2010_race.asp

I'm working on the videos and will be up soon!
Thanks for all your support to the FUND!

Slider's Video Diary / Saturday, March 27th, 2010