Olympic hockey

Papa_Complex · 03-01-2010, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trip

He also made it through all the world cup qualifying to get there. There were also several other crashes at Whistler by experienced racers.

Poor safety implementation is what it is more about. If you are going to make the "fastest track in the world", you should also make all attempts to make it the safest in the world as well. Exposed metal structure supports in a crash zone is very very poor planning.

I'll give no argument regarding the poorly laid out stanchions. It seems to me that most of the tracks in the Winter Olympics have been the "fastest" though. People don't want to go to the games and not see records fall.

Trip · 03-01-2010, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

I'll give no argument regarding the poorly laid out stanchions. It seems to me that most of the tracks in the Winter Olympics have been the "fastest" though. People don't want to go to the games and not see records fall.

They added 15-20 mph though. That's pretty significant of a jump.

Apoc · 03-01-2010, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trip

They added 15-20 mph though. That's pretty significant of a jump.

It was actually about 6mph... Still quite an increase though.

Trip · 03-01-2010, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apoc

It was actually about 6mph... Still quite an increase though.

I mistakingly got that from this, but they did get close to 10 mph over the previous record.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/12/...ash/index.html

Quote:

Sports Illustrated's David Epstein, who is covering the Olympics for the magazine, told CNN's "Situation Room" that the Whistler course is the fastest in the world "and not by a little."

He noted that while most luge courses "flatten out" around the 11th turn, the Whistler track "just keeps on dropping, so there's really kind of no break from gathering speed toward the end."

Epstein said some athletes had been complaining about the speed of the course and speculating that this Winter Games could be the first time the sport sees a competitor hit 100 mph.

"That's 15 to 20 mph faster than any course in the rest of the world," Epstein said.

A track speed record -- and world speed record -- was recorded at Whistler on February 21, 2009, when a single men's luge athlete topped 95 mph during competition. American luger Tony Benshoof held the previous world speed record of 86.8 mph set in 2001.

The guy who died was going 88, so only a 1 mph faster than the previous fastest speed ever.

Apoc · 03-01-2010, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trip

I mistakingly got that from this, but they did get close to 10 mph over the previous record.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/12/...ash/index.html

The guy who died was going 88, so only a 1 mph faster than the previous fastest speed ever.

Ya, thats still pretty fucking fast, racing feet first on a carbon fiber board