The 2014 Olympics will feature plenty of dangerous events - just a quick glance at some of the injuries that have already occurred can testify as much - but the luge ranks at the top as far as risky events go.
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NBC’s Joe Posnanski took a look inside the mindset required to thrive in such a sport, including this anecdote from Swiss luger Gregory Carigiet:Carigiet is more than aware of the danger of his sport. He says that five years ago, at that same Whistler course where Kumaritashvili crashed, there was something not quite secured at the women’s starting block and Carigiet smashed into it, head first, broke his nose, suffered a concussion and badly cut himself just above his eye.
“They needed 10 minutes to clean up the blood,” he says, not unhappily. In fact, he says it with a pretty big smile on his face, and he feigns outrage at our laughter.
“Funny, eh?” he says. “Well maybe it is funny now.”Posnanski provides a behind-the-scenes look at the sport (and a reference to some classic Jerry Seinfeld standup material) in this feature for NBCOlympics.com.
