The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver opened under a pall last night after a Georgian athlete was killed in a training accident on a luge track said by many competitors to be too fast and too dangerous.
Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died after losing control of his sled on the final turn at Whistler mountain. Officials immediately closed the track, which has been the subject of numerous complaints in recent days, as well as a dozen crashes.
Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said the thoughts of the "Olympic family" were with the family and friends of the dead competitor, as organisers scrambled to mark Kumaritashvili's death during last night's opening ceremony. "This casts a shadow over these games," he said.
Last night, Georgian athletes said they would compete, despite Kumaritashvili's death.
"Our athletes decided to be loyal to the spirit of the Olympic Games and they will compete and dedicate their performance to their fallen comrade," said Nikolos Rurua, Georgia's minister of culture.
The games organisers will be under severe pressure to make changes to the track, which is due to host the bobsleigh and skeleton bob events, as well as the luge.
Earlier in the day, the gold-medal favourite for the men's luge event, Italy's Armin Zöggeler, came off his sled. He slid on his back down several curves before coming to a stop and walking away. A Romanian luge competitor was briefly knocked unconscious and at least four Americans have had serious trouble just getting down the track.
"I think they are pushing it a little too much," Australia's Hannah Campbell-Pegg said on Thursday after she nearly lost control in training. "To what extent are we just little lemmings that they just throw down a track and we're crash-test dummies? I mean, this is our lives."
The Vancouver sledding track stretches for almost a mile and has a drop of 148 metres. It has long had a reputation as the fastest in the world and is generally considered to be 10mph "faster" than any other. It holds the world record speed for luge, at just under 100mph and even officials at the site were reported to have voiced concerns.
"The track is too fast," said Josef Fendt, the president of the World Luge Federation. "We have planned it for a maximum speed of 137kph, but it is almost 20kph faster. We think this is a planning mistake."
The head of Georgian Olympic Federation said the team was considering withdrawing from the games. "We are all in deep shock, we don't know what to do," said Irakly Japaridze. "We don't know whether to take part in the opening ceremony or even the Olympic games themselves."
It was unclear whether or not the men's luge event, which was due to begin today, will start on schedule or even if it will be staged at all. The games' organisers will investigate the safety of the track. Luge training was suspended indefinitely and teams were asked to attend a meeting.
Attention will focus on the Canadian hosts' criticised policy of restricting access for competitors from other nations before the games. Britain's Shelley Rudman, whose skeleton event will be held on the track, had complained she had been "severely hampered" by the lack of access. "The reality is, it's a different track, I haven't had that many runs there. The Canadians have."
British luger Adam Rosen took part in the same training session as Kumaritashvili yesterday. He crashed on the same track in October and suffered a dislocated hip and has only just recovered.
After his first training run yesterday, Rosen said of the track: "It's very fast. It's a very technical track. You have to be very exact on certain parts of the track otherwise they could be disastrous."
According to the British Olympic Association's chief executive, Andy Hunt, the British skeleton sliders have had just 10% of the practice time on the stretch that the Canadian team has enjoyed. Similar complaints had been voiced by the Americans. "I think it shows a lack of sportsmanship," Ron Rossi, the executive director of USA Luge, told the New York Times.
