Nodar Kumaritashvili (1988–2010) was a Georgian luge athlete who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony. He became the fourth athlete to die from practice at any of the Winter Olympics, and the seventh athlete to die from practice or competition at any of the Olympic Games. Kumaritashvili, who first participated in luge when he was 13, came from a family of seasoned lugers: his grandfather had introduced the sport to the Soviet republic of 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 Georgian Technical University, where he earned an economics degree in 2009 while adhering to a strict training regimen and participating in competitions. (Full article...)