Death Gives Us Pause in Our Race for Thrills by Various Sports Writers on Creators.com

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Death Gives Us Pause in Our Race for Thrills

By Tim Sullivan

Maybe the show must go on. But the stage should never be set in stone.

When death disrupts our games, as it did last Friday at the Whistler Sliding Centre, it is incumbent on those in charge to welcome change; to come to grips with the causes of their grief and to take steps to slow the sprint to the cemetery.

In a more perfect world, the search for sporting speed would always be subordinate to the interests of safety. But try telling that to the risk-tolerant thrill-seekers who take icy turns at 90 miles per hour in pursuit of Olympic gold, or to the NASCAR gladiators who feared their races were trending too tame since Dale Earnhardt's 2001 death at Daytona.

Try telling some skateboard daredevil of the risks of negotiating a sloping handrail from aboard a thin plank of maple.

Those who seek to reduce the dangers of high-speed and high-risk sports can count on a backlash, both competitively and commercially. Only a day after the Republic of Georgia's Nodar Kumaritashvili died from injuries sustained in an Olympic training run, Austrian luger Manuel Pfister complained that overnight changes had rendered the course "too easy."

Moving the men's starting line to the women's (and the women's to the junior starting line) has served to reduce speeds. Installing protective padding on exposed steel beams should minimize the risk of repeating Kumaritashvili's fatal crash.

Still, elite lugers complained that the course and the competition had been compromised by the changes. Though Olympic officials have callously blamed Kumaritashvili's death on driver error rather than design flaws — possibly on the advice of their lawyers — their actions bespeak panicked butt-covering.

"We trained the whole summer and we are strong and fast and now the fastest starters are slow," Germany's Natalie Geisenberger told The New York Times. "It's not good for us. It's not fun.

"I think it's good because of this terrible accident, but they had to do that one year earlier ... not when one is dead. It's too late. They are afraid now."

Given a choice between life and livelier competition, any sane administrator can be expected to pursue the path of least liability.

Given the damage Kumaritashvili's death has inflicted on the image of the Vancouver Games, organizers were obliged to respond decisively or risk being seen as criminally stupid.

This is consistent with the customary pattern. When tragedy strikes in sports, the immediate reaction is often overreaction.

Following St. Louis pitcher's Josh Hancock fatal and alcohol-fueled automobile crash in 2007, several big-league ballclubs promptly imposed bans on beer in the clubhouse.

Shortly after the Vancouver Canucks Luc Bourden died in a 2008 motorcycle accident, General Manager Mike Gillis announced that the team would implement new policies and educational programs to influence players "on anything that might impact or affect a career."

Such a program would take in an incalculable amount of territory, of course, but human nature is to react before reasoning. When something goes horribly wrong, our immediate instinct is to try to fix things so the same thing can never happen again. Over time, though, vigilance often gives way to negligence, as technical progress raises speeds and risks.

Even as the Olympic lugers were competing on their truncated course yesterday, another race was revisiting old dangers on the other side of the continent.

Responding to declining ratings and mounting disaffection, NASCAR raised speeds and risks at its Daytona 500 by reducing the impact of restrictor plates on horsepower and by relaxing rules concerning bump-drafting. The goal was to promote more passing, more contact between cars ("If you ain't rubbin', you ain't racin'_") and, presumably, more fistfights between drivers.

The results from yesterday's Daytona 500 would suggest a more spectator-friendly balance had been struck. The self-professed Great American Race featured a record 21 leaders, 52 lead changes and enough multicar crashes to appease those who find drama in dents.

Though the race was delayed more than two hours by repeated pothole repairs, Jamie McMurray's narrow victory over Dale Earnhardt Jr. delivered the kind of electrifying finish fans have missed during recent races.

"This validates all the changes NASCAR made to get better," Earnhardt Jr. said after the race. "They made a lot of good choices on what to do to put things back in the drivers' hands. I never once felt NASCAR was looking over my shoulder today."

Better yet, nobody died. This time.

Tim Sullivan writes about sports for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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