Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili from Georgia is killed after horrific training crash

So sad, I just hope this does mean other bad things to happen in the up coming games...

WHISTLER - Nodar Kumaritashvili, a 21-year-old luger from the country of Georgia, was killed Friday at the Winter Games following a horrific crash on an exceedingly dangerous luge course.

Hours before the Opening Ceremony at the Vancouver Games, Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled near the bottom of the swift course, crashing at 143.3 kilometers per hour (88 mph) into a metal pillar. He was given CPR on the site through a plastic tube, then lifted into an ambulance and rushed to Whistler Polyclinic as an emergency helicopter hovered above.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said after the accident that he was uncertain if Georgia's Olympic delegation would stay and participate in the Games, but at a press conference later in the day, Nikolos Rurua, minister of sport for Georgia, said the seven-member team will compete, and would march in Friday night's Opening Ceremonies wearing commemorative black stripes on their arms and would place a black stripe on the Georgian flag.

Rogge also said an investigation into the luge venue was underway, but declined to elaborate about what steps might be taken. "I will be ready to debate or deliberate with you about that at a proper time," said Rogge. "I'm sorry but this is a time for sorrow. It is not a time to look for reasons. That will come in due time."

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.

Entering the out-run of the luge track, the 21-year-old Kumaritashvili went over the wall, crashed into the post and lay motionless. About 90 minutes after the crash, photographers and television crews milled about on the wet asphalt, able to take photographs of the scene of the accident. The location where Kumaritashvili met his gruesome end was at the end of the final turn of the track, where about 20 steel pillars support a canopy of corrugated metal. The pillars are each square in shape.

A few hours after the accident, a group of six people in blue Olympic uniforms sat in a light drizzle on a concrete barrier just a few steps from where the accident occured, and were later seen talking to Canadian law enforcement officials while other uniformed officers kept a growing cluster of international television crews from getting closer to the track. By the time Olympic officials confirmed Kumaritashivili's death, access to the area near the death was more limited.