Luge track warning had come months before athlete’s death

Vancouver organisers and luge officials have said Kumaritashvili’s accident was caused by his errors and not by “deficiencies in the track,” but the top official of the Georgian Olympic committee rejected that conclusion on Thursday. “I exclude the possibility that Nodar was not experienced enough,” Giorgi Natsvlishlili,the committee’s chief,said in televised comments,according to news accounts. “From my point of view the track was at fault.”

As a two-time Olympian,Hoeger had the benefit of experience. At age 56,he was trying to become the oldest participant in the Vancouver Games. Kumaritashvili,21,was young and relatively new to elite competition. He was ranked 44th in the World Cup standings and had completed 26 runs on the course. By comparison,Canada’s luge athletes had an average of 250 runs.

Perfect day for Riesch

Maria Riesch joined best friend Lindsey Vonn as an Alpine gold medallist at the Vancouver Olympics on Thursday,winning the super-combined race. The German skier won the gold in a combined time of 2 minutes,9.14 second. “Today everything was fitting together,” Riesch said. “That’s what I said before these Olympics Games — for winning a gold medal everything must be perfect that day for you.”

Evan Lysacek caused a big surprise in men’s figure skating,winning the gold medal ahead of Russian great Evgeni Plushenko.