Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili said he was terrified of the track at the Whistler Sliding Center the day before he died.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
“He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m scared of one of the turns.’
“I said, ‘Put your legs down on the ice to slow down,’ but he said if he started the course he would finish it. … He was brave.”
Nodar Kumaritashvili also spoke with his parents minutes before his fateful slide, telling them he planned to make them proud, according to The Globe and Mail. The officials said the track safe and fault Kumaritashvili, even while hypocritically lowering the starting location and adding pads to the metal beams that caused the death.
Germany’s Natalie Geisenberger, who won a race at Whistler last year, said the women’s event has turned into a kids race. She said the new start is for kinder (German for children’s) start.