I think even hitting a landing mat at 90+ Mph would be dangerous. But I agree about the iron posts comment.

I don't believe the "wrong calculation" stuff. I mean this isn't the first time that an ice canal has been build. There is enough data around and the laws of physics were still valid last time I checked. So how on earth are they supposed to calculate that wrong? I wonder, was it already calculated wrong before the accident happened or were they still proud of having created the fasted track in the world (I heard some of the downhill skiing tracks are the fastest in the world too...let's hope they aren't too fast as well....)?

The calculation was done by a company in Leizig, Germany. Irt seems their data were outdated and did not include the latest air resistance coefficients and speeds in various parts of the track. The calculation formulas may be correctm but if you feed them with certain data, you get certain results. Nobody seriously rejects that there is a gap in the maximum speeds with which they calculated, and the speeds that actually were seen.

On another issue, a german comment yesterday hit a nerve, imo. the commentator asked in an essay that if in a sports a driver'S fault results in the driver getting killed - is the show then still about sports - or about stunts? The latter points at ancient understandings of "spectacles" that you could not bring into conformity with the spirit of sportsmanship.

This is exactly what I'm fearing all along. That the safety standards have been neglected for more "spectacular" events. I don't say that they wanted people to die but I think they wanted to spice up the show with speed records.

Still that doesn't answer what was meant by "exotic sliders".

He is a German so he would not have meant Europeans. He coaches Canada, so he wouldn't have meant North Americans. He said it in the context of people not being prepared for the track, so all that is left to assume is that he means part-time/inexperienced sliders, or something of the sort, but since the press didn't ask him.. who knows? Why is that phrase such a big deal?

What a damn shame :nope:

I have to give all the people who do that sport credit, I wouldn't want to try it for a million pounds.

See - I'd love to try it myself. Have no clue how to steerthe thing, but it looks like fun.

Course, I think jumping out of perfectly good airplanes in the dark is fun too.