Dead luger told father of his fears

Kumaritashvili warned of excessive track speeds before his fatal accident

(SHAKH AIVAZOV/AP)

In a call home shortly before he was thrown from his luge and killed on an Olympic training run, Nodar Kumaritashvili told his father that he was afraid of the brand-new, lightning-quick track in Whistler.

"He told me, "Dad, I really fear that curve,'" David Kumaritashvili, a former luger himself, said at his home on the snow-covered slopes of Georgia's top ski resort.

"I'm a former athlete myself, and I told him, 'You just take a slower start,'" recalled Kumaritashvili, who at times struggled to hold back tears. "But he responded: 'Dad, what kind of thing you are teaching me? I have come to the Olympics to try to win.'"

Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died during practice last Friday when he lost control of his sled and slammed into a trackside steel pole at nearly 90mph.

"I haven't and I won't see that footage [of the accident]," his father said. "I still can't fully realise that he's dead."

His face lined and shoulders bent in anguish, David Kumaritashvili paused to recall details of one of his last conversations with his son. "He told me: 'I will either win or die,'" he said. "But that was youthful bravado, he couldn't be seriously talking about death."

Concerns about the course had been raised earlier. There were worries that the $100m (£64m)-plus venue was too technically demanding, and that only the host nation's sliders would have had enough practice time to adapt.

"They tested that track on my son," the elder Kumaritashvili said.

In a joint statement, the luge federation and Vancouver Olympic officials blamed the accident on the athlete, saying that Kumaritashvili was late coming out of the next-to-last turn and failed to compensate.

His 46-year-old father angrily rejected this argument. "My son was training since he was 14, he ran tracks in France, Austria and Canada, and he never suffered an injury," said Kumaritashvili, a former luge champion of the Soviet Union. "He has passed through all stages of the World Cup and made it to the Olympics. He couldn't have done that if he were an inexperienced athlete. Anyone can make mistake and break a leg or suffer some other injury. But to die!"

Georgia's President, Mikhail Saakashvili, has also criticised organisers, saying that an athlete's mistake shouldn't result in his death. Saakashvili called Kumaritashvili's father and promised him that his son's body would be flown home as quickly as formalities allow. No date has been set for the funeral yet.

A steady stream of neighbours and friends came to Kumaritashvili's home yesterday, bearing flowers and condolences for the family.

The luger was the pride of his hometown, where he was known for his high spirits and generosity. The village of 1,500 inhabitants was one of the sites Georgia had proposed in its failed bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

David Gureshidze, a 28-year-old friend of Nodar Kumaritashvili, admired the young athlete's commitment to his sport. "I have never seen such a dedicated person, sports was everything to him," Gureshidze said. "I taught him skiing, and in several months he was skiing better than me."

Gureshidze said that Nodar had been well liked by children of the village, and had taught many of them to ski. "He spent most of his time abroad, but he would never miss a chance to visit home and would bring gifts to everyone," Gureshidze said.

The athlete's 20-year-old cousin, Givi Kharazishvili, said Nodar Kumaritashvili had been driven by high ambitions. "He had a dream of winning the Olympics," he said.