Heavy-hearted sliders look forward after crash (News Feature)

By David Hein Feb 14, 2010, 0:52 GMT

Whistler, Canada - Heavy hearts filled the finish area of Saturday's men's and women's luge training at the Whistler Sliding Centre one day after luger Nodar Kumaritashvili lost his life in a tragic crash

Nearly all the luge athletes admitted Friday was an emotional day. But the prevailing sentiment on Saturday was to look forward and do what the young Georgian would have done - race.

'It's a big hit to the luge community and the Olympic community but today is a new day, we are racing with Nodar in our minds,' said Canadian slider Samuel Edney. 'It's honourable that everyone got on their sleds today.'

'It was an unfortunate incident, it eats you inside. It reminds you that it's a speed sport and that we take risks doing it,' said Jeff Christie of Canada.

'We're all racers, that's what we do and that's what he (Kumaritashvili) would have done.'

Megan Sweeney of the United States said she wore a Georgia pin and a black ribbon to the opening ceremony. And all the athletes competing in the men's training on Saturday were wearing a strip of black tape on the left side of their helmets as a mark of respect for Kumaritasvhili - a move decided at a meeting of the sliders at the athletes villeage.

'All of us had a meeting at the (athletes') village and thought about how to honour his memory and his ideals,' explained India's Shiva K. P. Keshavan.

While the sadness on the athletes face was clear to be send, American Erin Hamlin's message was to remain positive.

'What I want people to know about the luge is that it's not that scary. We're all paying our respects. We all know what happened, it's a small community, we lost a fellow athlete,' Hamlin said.

'But people need to realise that we're still here, we're still racing on this track and when they dwell on the tragedy and they keep showing the coverage, they're making it harder for us. People need to be positive.'

But many athletes and coaches spoke out against the decision to lower the starting points of the men's, women's and doubles luge races following Kumaritashvili's death.

'I'm conflicted because of what happened. But the elite deserve to race on the hardest start. They made the decision with the 30th place athlete in mind, not the first,' said USA Luge CEO Ron Rossi.

'For me (starting from the women's start) is really disappointing. I wanted to race the men's from the men's start. That's where my strength is,' said Canadian Ian Cockerline.

American Tony Benshoof, who was the first competitor on the course on Saturday, said the lower started clearly slowed down the run.

'The changes they made were in a positive way. With the lower start it's significantly slower, significantly easier and significantly safer,' said Benshoof.

Canada coach Wolfsgang Staudinger expressed his desire that the luge jury officials would have consulted the coaches before lowering the start.

'I don't think the officials really know what the emotions of the athletes are because they don't see the athletes on a day-to-day basis,' said the German Staudinger.

'We, the coaches, are the ones who are with the athletes. If they say so, maybe that's good. But maybe they should talk to the coaches and not make decisions based on their emotions.'