OLYMPIC LUGER KILLED AFTER TRAINING CRASH! HOURS BEFORE THE OPENING CEREMONIES!

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 Hospital as an emergency helicopter hovered above.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the Georgia's Olympic delegation was still considering whether they would participate or withdraw from the Games. 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.

Training was suspended indefinitely and members of the International Luge Federation were called for a briefing. The head of Georgia's delegation said the Georgia team may withdraw from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

"We are all in deep shock, we don't know what to do. We don't know whether to take part in (today's) opening ceremony or even the Olympic Games themselves," Irakly Japaridze said.

John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, said at a press conference following the incident that he was "heartbroken" about Kumaritashvili's death.

"He came here to be able to feel what it's like to be able to call yourself an Olympian," Furlong said. "The accident is tragic. It will be investigated, and when we know the substance of what happened, you will know it."

The Whistler Sliding Center has long had the reputation of a super-fast course, with sliders achieving blinding speeds above 90 mph. Lugers are easily ejected from their sleds at such speeds, which is what happened to Kumaritashvili, who had been competing for the Georgian national team for two years. Kumaritashvili was ranked only 44th in the world but, judging by other training crashes the past two days, expertise was not the problem.

There had been several other crashes on the luge course. A Romanian woman, Violeta Stramaturaru was knocked briefly unconscious on Thursday and taken to a hospital after slamming into a wall several times.

As investigators examine the scene of the accident, questions will almost certainly be asked about why organizers and engineers of the course allowed a competition to go on without any padding or fencing covering the metal pillars alongside the track. At the Alpine skiing venues across the valley, for instance, most of the boundaries of the racecourses are lined with sophisticated screens that ensure most racers who crash will slide down the hill and back onto the field of play rather than fly into the forests, chairlift towers, or other man-made structures.

Christoph Schweiger, a luge equipment technician with the Austrian team, said the speed was too great at the Whistler track. "This track, the speed is too high," said Schweiger. "Luge federation and bobsled federation, they all have engineers which homologate this track. On other tracks in the world, too, they always work for higher safety."

Schweiger said it would be hard for him and his colleagues to explain what happened to their athletes.

"It's not easy for anyone to tell such bad news," he said. "We have no experience in saying such bad things."

Several sliders, including four American lugers reported terrible troubles finishing the course, while the gold medal favorite, Armin Zoeggler of Italy, also crashed on his training run, coming off his sled and holding it with his left arm to keep it from hitting his body. He walked away from the crash on Blackcomb Mountain's southeast side. The course has 16 turns and drops steeply for 152 meters - the world's longest drop.

On Friday afternoon, the American luge team was on its way to the Opening Ceremony in Vancouver, which is roughly two hours south of the luge track. The organization's CEO, Ron Rossi, and president, Dwight Bell, issued a statement.

"USA Luge expresses its deep sympanthy to Nodar Kumaritashvili, his family, teammates, and coaches, and to the entire delegation from Georgia," Rossi and Bell said. "We will keep him in our prayers."

"My thoughts and prayers are with the Georgian Olympic team," added American bobsled driver Steven Holcomb said via Twitter. "The sliding community suffered a tragic and devastating loss to our family today."