Nodar Kumaritashvili

Nodar Kumaritashvili

Official IOC picture of Kumaritashvili
Personal information
Full name	Nodar Kumaritashvili (Georgian: ნოდარ ქუმარიტაშვილი)
Nationality	Georgian
Born	(1988-11-25)25 November 1988 Borjomi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
Died	12 February 2010(2010-02-12) (aged 21) Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
Home town	Bakuriani, Georgia
Education	Georgian Technical University
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Weight	80 kg (176 lb)
Sport
Country	Georgia
Sport	Luge
Turned pro	2008

Nodar Kumaritashvili (Georgian: ნოდარ ქუმარიტაშვილი; pronounced [nodaɾ kʰumaɾitʼaʃʷili]; 25 November 1988 – 12 February 2010) was a Georgian luge athlete who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony. He became the fourth athlete to die during preparations for a Winter Olympics, and the eighth athlete to die as a result of Olympic competition or during practice at their sport’s venue at an Olympic Games.

Kumaritashvili, who first began to participate in luge when he was 13, came from a family of seasoned lugers: his grandfather had introduced the sport to Soviet Georgia, and both his father and uncle had competed when they were younger, with his uncle later serving as the head of the Georgian Luge Federation. Kumaritashvili himself began competing in the 2008–09 Luge World Cup. He had also been a student at the Georgian Technical University, where he earned an economics degree in 2009.