Few events symbolize the Olympic Games more than marathon. Discus throw, epitomized in stone by the famous sculpture of Discobolo, is one of those symbols of the ancient Olympics, yet today the track and field event does not get much attention unless those watching are fans, knowledgeable about the records and admire the grace of the event. Sprints, namely 100 meter dash, is a classic event for the sheer fact it personifies the fastest human on Earth. Sprinters are often held in highest esteem. Who can forget Armin Harry running 100m at 10 seconds flat at the Rome Olympics, or, Wilma Rudolph becoming the first American woman to win three gold medals in the Rome Olympics. Who can forget the legendary Bikila Abebe running the Rome marathon barefoot, or when Joan Benoit became the first winner of the Women’s Olympic Marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Today the long distance running events are dominated by the Kenyans and Ethiopians. Nine out of top ten marathon times in the world today are held by Kenyans, the best, however, is time of an Ethiopian, Haile Gebrselassie, who holds the current World Record at the incredible 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds. The nine Kenyan runners have run all within mere one minute slower than the Ethiopian, a phenomenal depth of runners for a single nation. While the Kenyans have long dominated these events it was not until Samuel Kamau Wanjiru finally won the first marathon gold for Kenya at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Since 1896 only two runners have won the Olympic marathon gold twice, Bikila Abebe and Waldemar Cierpinski. But only one runner stands above all in the Olympic long distance running events. That man is Emil Zatopek of former Czechoslovakia. Zatopek was the first and still remains as the only runner that has won the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and the marathon at the single Olympic Games, the unofficial Triple Crown of Olympic long distance running events, in runners’ lingo aka Nickel, Dime, and the Big One. It took place at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. Called the “The Czech Locomotive” Zatopek dominated the long distance events from late 40s until mid 50s, broke eighteen world records ranging from 5,000 meters to 30,000 meters, including 6 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles and the one hour run. At the Helsinki Olympic Games his phenomenal achievement winning all three races is even more remarkable as he had done so over a period of only eight days and considering he had never run a marathon before! And that is only just scratching the surface of who was Emil Zatopek.

That prophesy has been correct in both respects. The Czechs beat the Slovaks and Latvia, got edged by the Russians, narrowly escaped defeat at the hands of Latvia the second time around in the preliminary round, and last night suffered a devastating narrow-margin loss to Finland.

Most of the games at the Olympic tournament involving the top teams in the world were tight games and not pretty to watch. US barely slipped past Switzerland which Canada subdued only by a single goal in am unexpected shootout earlier. Slovakia made it barely past Norway 4:3, same score by which they surprised Sweden, tournament’s favorite.

There have only been two shockers thus far. Canada’s rout of Russians by a score of 7:3 in the preliminary round and the defeat of Sweden in the quarterfinals. Though the Americans have been expected to play team Canada for the gold before the tournament started, by now both teams know they have to get first through their semifinal matches, US against Finland and Canada against Slovakia, and it would not be a real bombshell if Finland would play Slovakia for the gold.

None of the NHL hockey stars, including Ovechkin, Malkin or Crosby, have shined. In fact it can be said that most remarkable performances have been delivered only by the goalies. The astounding realization comes from noting that the historically second-rated teams of Norway, Latvia and particularly Switzerland have improved so much that from here on they have to be counted among Olympic hockey contenders rather than underdogs.

While the Georgian delegation chose to continue competing at the games, their somber faces told the story. Fortunately death of an Olympic athlete at the games is not a common occurrence. Over the last one hundred years of the modern Olympic Games there have been only a handful of tragic accidents. Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death, the Georgian luger that died on Friday on the luge track at Whistler Mountain, was only seventh death at the Olympic Games, two of which have occurred at the summer Olympic Games and now five at the Winter Olympic Games.

Olympic Games have certainly experienced their share of tragedies, the most horrific of which was the death of eleven members of the Israeli athletic delegation at the 1972 Summer Olympic games in Munich at the hands of terrorists. In 1996 at the Atlanta Olympic Games two people died at the hands of another fanatic, but sporting deaths have been relatively few.

Of the five death at winter games, three were skiing related in crashes that had to with collisions, either with another human or hitting a tree and basically were a result of ineffective management of the downhill courses, either permitting too many people on the course or not accounting for a possibility that a skier could go off course and hit a tree.

The tragic accident in luge on Friday was the second in the luge event at the Olympic Games. The first was of a British luge athlete who died during his training run for the first Olympic luge competition at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. At the time his death could have been in part assigned to the fact that luge was a new Olympic event and inexperience might have been the more likely cause rather than the track design.

On another hand, the athletes that medaled at the Innsbruck Olympic Games in 1964 in luge race were all from only three countries, Germany, Austria and Italy, and one look over the list of top finishers in luge at all the Olympic Games since reveals that the event has been dominated by athletes from the nations that share the Alps.

Luge, like the bobsled, originated in St Moritz, Switzerland, a prominent ski resort in the Alps, in the late nineteenth century. Although most of the best artificial luge and bobsled tracks are situated in the Alpine resorts, few exist elsewhere in Europe, namely in Norway, Russia, Poland and Slovenia. Japan built a fine track for the Nagano Olympics. In the United States there are famous tracks in Lake Placid and Park City. Obviously cost of construction has all to do with the fact why state of the art luge and bobsled tracks are not found in too many countries, and while mountains with snow are found in many a country and sledding is a favorite and inexpensive pastime over the world, becoming a skilled luger ready to compete at the Olympic Games is another matter.

While the Whistler luge track had received a lot of publicity and its speeds of over 90 miles per hours were noted with some alarm, as was its safety, as well as critical voices were concerning the limited access that was being strictly streamlined, it has been also well documented how many lugers in fact crashed on the track before the fatal accidents.

The Vancouver Olympic Games luge competition finished last night, and no major crashes took place, so although the event is now history some unanswered issues remain.

Statistics showed that Nodar Kumaritashvili competed in five World Cup races this season and placed 44th in the standings after the races in Igls, Altenberg, Lillehammer, Koenigssee, Winterberg, Oberhof and Cesana. Prior to Casena race in Italy, the last luge World Cup race before the Vancouver games he had only 4 points and was ranked 57th out of 65 racers listed. At Cesana, Italy he did considerably better collecting 13 points, and finishing with 17 points on 44th place in the standings before the Olympics.

The argument that he was inexperienced, that luge athletes from smaller nations may not have enough time to practice on top courses may be in part valid. However, the fact that in the World Cup standings behind him finished athletes from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, India, Taiwan, Slovakia, Korea, Rumania, Hungary, Argentina, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia but also luge superpowers (with certainly state of the art race tracks) such as Japan, Russia and USA proves that the argument may not be a valid one.

And just for the record, Nodar Kumaritashvili stood ahead also of Bruno Banani of Tonga!! Yes, Tonga, the South Pacific nation, where the only ice they have, not to mention a snow mountain on which to build a luge track, is in their refrigerators! Of course I am just joking, we already know Jamaica has a pretty good bobsled team and last night in luge we saw quite a good run by a luger from India!

No matter how much one wants use the argument that athletes from smaller nations may not be experienced enough or that the sport is simply too dangerous to let less experienced athletes to compete does not stand on its own merit. When the news of the fatal accident became known, and NBC sure brought us numerous repeats of the gory details, albeit with words of warning how graphic the video document was, and one could see how the luge athlete obviously lost control and bounced off of the sheltered wall and was catapulted over the edge of the open wall, landing smack against the steel posts that were right there, the Whistler accident clearly belongs into the category of an improperly track design in terms of safety.

I mean, how stupid can there be a design of a luge and bobsled race track that far accedes any speeds previously ever recorded on any luge race tracks in Europe, Russia or Japan, and on the final turn where races can experience as much as 7Gs, and not figure out that one could bounce of as Nodar Kumaritashvili did, and let these idiotic poles right there, making sure there are more than one so that one can makes sure to hit at least one, stand there without any padding, foam, bales of straw or any protection against impact whatsoever!

Let’s be honest in an assessment – that the deficiency in the design was clearly negligence that is downright criminal! How anything like this could actually pass any kind of safety inspection!

By Saturday, the day after the tragic accident, NBC was set to spare us the graphic video of the Olympic luger’s last seconds of life, professing their sensitivity on the issue, whether toward the Georgian athlete’s family, his fellow athletes on the Georgian delegation, when in fact even his father was not interested in viewing his son’s last seconds of life, the video had by then been well offered for never-ending viewing on infinite number of blogs and YouTube.

Vancouver games organizers and the Olympic Committee may be praised for the sympathetic expression of grief, the staged one minute of silence and tears shed by various high ranking officials, but the question remains – was this a preventable accident? Should the design of the Whistler track actually pass inspection?

Whatever was the designer thinking is one thing, but should whoever did the approving of this track as safe and its being even open, and its being in fact also approved for use at the Winter Olympic Games 2010, be actually held accountable?

It’s not we must see heads fall, but if we are to put a closure to this tragic accident, most of all we need to realize that the luge tracks maybe best enclosed in tubular Plexiglas, or behind glass as that used above the boards in ice hockey, and the only parts that should be left open are those on any straightaway.

Deciding to lower the starting point in order to diminish speeds is one way to decrease the chance of accidents but the solution is still not dealing with any kind of proper design guidelines for artificial luge and bobsled tracks actually being in place.

No matter what we will do from here on will bring Nodar Kumaritashvili back to life, but where we go from here may only assure that future accidents, in any Olympic sport, may have a less chance to occur.