The Vancouver 2010 Olympics

[Samw]

Originally Posted by sphelps

I didn't think the arm failing was a big deal, it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the past problems in other places. From an engineering point of view it was a complex system and the recovery with 3 arms was well done. **** happens and it's easy to criticize from your couch but honestly very few people could do better. Plus they had the benefit of lighting the outside torch as well which was flawless.

Also keep in mind that no one has ever been launched out of a luge track before so let's not be too hard on those designers either. Although it could have been prevented it was far from being predictable. Above all it was a freak accident and I don't think it's far to pass blame. In the future, tracks will now be built a little different with more precautions to prevent another similar accident. The world learns by failure so let's stay positive.

Maybe better designs prevented others from being launched? It's either the athlete or the track. Well, it's not the athlete.

I don't think I said it was easy to build the arms. But with the world watching, the arm did fail. Can't argue it. Everyone is talking about it. Just because it doesn't bother you doesn't mean it was a success either.

You have to take the negatives with the positives. Why pretend there are no negatives? It happened so I and everyone else can comment on them as a negatives. They certainly aren't positives.

You write as if I am being a harsh critic when I simply wrote a few sentences on this topic.