Because of the death of 21-year-old luger Nodar Kumaritashvili the first day of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Sochi 2014 officials are promising that their luge track will be slower.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of Sochi 2014 told Reuters, “we will start construction of the track this year and it will be 10 to 15 kilometres less fast (than Whistler)”, meaning that top speeds would be around 140kph compared to the 154kph top speed at the luge track in Whistler.
Chernyshenko said, “we will be guided by this by the International Luge Federation (FIL). Safety should be the key factor. There should be no compromise”.
Chernyshenko added that Sochi 2014 organizers will run three dimensional simulations on all potential scenarios to make sure a similar incident is avoided.
He said, “we want to avoid even the minimal possibility of something going wrong”.
To ensure Sochi has enough snow for the 2014 Winter Games, Chernyshenko said, “we will be applying innovative technological solutions to make sure the competitions are absolutely fine. We will do extra activities for snow storage. We also have a system that creates artificial snow independent of weather conditions”.
He said that Sochi had an added advantage that the Krasnaya Polyana mountain sites, about 40 km away, were at a higher altitude than Vancouver. “The downhill start is 400 metres higher than in Whistler at 2,250 metres. There is a natural advantage. We are lucky with the geography.
“The warm humid air blows in from the Black Sea and comes down as snow in higher altitude”, said Chernyshenko.
