Injury and death can be reduced but never completely avoided.  As tragic as a fatality is, we shouldn't cancel an entire event due to the first death in 50 years.  Obviously this is a relatively safe sport.

My prayers to the family and his teammates for this accident. Hope whatever safety measures that can be done are made. So that all players can be protected.

It is tragic, but I highly doubt the victim would want his enitre sport and dream cancelled due to his death. Thst is not honoring him at all.

People are killed in all sports and it is all to sad. Race cars, football baseball, hockey, skiing, they have all had their share. Just continue to always make it safer.

Don't dash the dreams of other athletes who trained for years. They know risks and are willing to take them. He died doing what he loved. He was an Olympic athlete with Olympic spirit ,and he would want the competition to go on.

The facility is not safe --> Exposed Steel Poles!

It needs to be stopped until the track is made safe.

No excuse for having bare steel exposed in any manner near the track.

I gotta say when I saw the photos I thought "who is the idiot who put a row of iron bars at the base of a luge where a human is sitting atop a big ice skate, completely exposed?

This is a horrific design and needs to be fixed or destroyed.

it can and will happen, rarely, as competition and sports related engineering progress, as they both will. we as a species compete in many ways on a never ending basis and will always do so.

very unfortunate for sure. learn, protect and move on. padding should have been all over that track in anticipation of injury. lesson learned the hard way... NO?

my thoughts are with his team mates & family

While normally I would say the show must go on, but, there are real saftey questions concerning this track. This event should be canceled, unless the Olympic committee want more people to die!

Cover the steel posts with a wall so you bounce along it and not smack a pole and be done with it. I am sure this athlete knew there was some risk with the sport. When you get on a sled and go nearly 90 MPH you have to be aware that MANY things can go seriously wrong.

If given the choice, there is almost no doubt that this young man would have chosen life rather than this horrible death. To say that he wouldn't is the worst kind of macho fantasizing.

The conditions for the luge racing are not safe enough for the luge events to take place.

It should be cancelled because it's dangerous - but we should also stop people from doing any type of activity in which a person can be harmed - no running, driving cars, flying in airplanes, riding bikes. We should even stop people from eating because they might choke.

this is a speed sport, with it come accidents and some times tragic result.

prayers go withthe family and all

if more than two people have crashed already and the games havent started, isnt is plausible to say the scare-factor will escalate the number of crashes as time goes?

Condolences to the family, friends and to the Olympics. A very sad day indeed.

It should most definitely be cancelled. That, or those metal beams should be removed. Not padded, but removed. The fact that some engineer was allowed to put those there is beyond comprehension.

Why is a guy rated 44th in the world even at the games? I wish the idiots who run this "sport", and many other extreme sports would make sure tracks are safe before sending someone to their death. Perhaps if the governing body of beaurocrats that run the I.O.C. would pull their heads out of their collective asses and check these venues out in advance this trajedy could have been avoided. Get it fixed and continue on. What a way to start the games.

Of course it should be cancelled. Wait, is that too hasty? Or should we also cancel missions to space, take cars off the road, destroy all rollercoasters, ban skydiving and don padded rubber suits when walking to work?

If you read the history of this track, the IFL and other sliding sports' governing bodies have had over two years of training and events at this facility. While there have been accidents, the rate has not been identified as excessive when compared to other tracks.

As a luge athlete he knew and accepted the risks involved in his chosen sport. Because people cannot see themselves taking that risk doesn't mean that others should not be allowed. Honor his memory by allowing the athletes to compete. And let everyone morn in their own way. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

There is an inherent danger to high risk sports like this (i.e. ski jumping, bobsled, downhill skiing, etc) and the athletes knowing accept these risks. Although tragic this isn't the first fatal accident nor will it be the last. No one is forced to compete and I am sure that all the lugers will race out of respect for Nodar Kumaritashvili. Let the games begin!