Georgian luge athlete dies after crash - UPDATED - PHOTOS

Hours before the Opening Ceremony at the Vancouver Games, Nodar Kumaritashvili from the country of Georgia lost control of his sled near the bottom of the swift luge course, crashing at full speed into a metal pole. He was given CPR on the site through a plastic tube, then lifted into an ambulance and rushed to a local hospital as an emergency helicopter hovered above.

Gruesome replays of the crash were being shown all over Olympic venues Friday afternoon, dousing enthusiasm for the torch relay and the run-up to the opening ceremonies. Later, in an apparent effort at damage control, the IOC invoked its copyrights on the crash video and removed it from YouTube - and several other Internet sites.

The 21-year-old Kumaritashvili went over the wall, crashed into the post and lay motionless, his body at nearly a right angle off the sled after the crash. Hours later, access to the accident scene was limited as photographers and television crews milled about on the wet asphalt.

"I've never seen anything like that," said Shiva Keshavan, a four-time Olympian from India, according to the Washington Post. "I'm afraid it's bad."

The Whistler Sliding Center has long had the reputation of a super-fast course, with sliders achieving blinding speeds above 90 mph. Lugers are easily ejected from their sleds at such speeds, which is what happened to Kumaritashvili, who had been competing for the Georgian national team for two years.

Training was suspended indefinitely and members of the International Luge Federation were called for a briefing.

The head of Georgia's delegation also said Friday that the Georgia team may withdraw from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

"We are all in deep shock, we don't know what to do. We don't know whether to take part in (today's) opening ceremony or even the Olympic Games themselves," Irakly Japaridze said.

Kumaritashvili was ranked only 44th in the world but, judging by other training crashes the past two days, expertise was not the problem.

There had been several other crashes on the luge course. A Romanian woman, Violeta Stramaturaru was knocked briefly unconscious on Thursday and taken to a hospital after slamming into a wall several times.

Several sliders, including four American lugers reported terrible troubles finishing the course, while the gold medal favorite, Armin Zoeggler of Italy, also crashed on his training run, coming off his sled and holding it with his left arm to keep it from hitting his body. He walked away from the crash on Blackcomb Mountain's southeast side. The course has 16 turns and drops steeply for 152 meters - the world's longest drop.

/NY Daily News/

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