>>>>>>>>>Now here is a weird one. The Dutch four man bobsled team has withdrawn from the Olympics, before the event. Reason: the driver is too scared to take the sled down the course. This sounds like The Onion, doesn't it? Evidently it's for real, though ---
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/25/olympics.bobsled.driver.quits/index.html?hpt=C1
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>That took a lot of guts. Good for him. Sometimes it takes more courage to be right than to be "brave".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I agree with that, but not in this situation. If the course was too scary for him, what was he doing there in the first place? No one had the proverbial gun to his head. The venue was known. A day or two before the race is no time to have this little epiphany.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The part that nettles me is his three teammates are out of the competition along with him. They knew the risks and accepted them. Surely there is a bobsled driver in the Netherlands who shared their view.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I think the problem was the way he saw the layout of the course. 8 teams had wiped out in trials. It's like calling Roethlisberger a pussy if he decides he shouldn't play after a concussion. I don't think the kind of adrenaline junkie who gets to the Olympics driving a bobsled is just wimping out because he suddenly realizes they go very fast. He made a decision that the risk/reward didn't work for him and he was going to be responsible for his life and the lives of three team-mates. I don't know if he was right or wrong, I just think it took a lot of guts to make a tough decision in a way that wasn't the path of least resistance.
>>>>>
>>>>>We agree on that much.
>>>>
>>>>So which is the part we don't agree on? Do you think if he had decided 24 hrs earlier they could have found a volunteer from the audience to drive the sled?
>>>
>>>He should have decided before getting on the plane for Vancouver, when there was still time to choose a replacement. The Whistler course is tough but it didn't suddenly become a different sport.
>>
>>My understanding is that his decision not to run was based on the Whistler course, which a number of people have called badly - and perhaps unsafely - designed. Wasn't that the course the luger was killed on? I don't think he could have made that decision until he had seen and run the course. And I think he also wiped out on the course on the 2 man sled in trials. There was no way to know what that course would be like before coming to Vancouver.
>
>It was where the luger was killed and I find it quite strange that there is no safety netting to keep contestants in the track.
>
>If motor racing had metal pillars at the corners all the drivers would walk out.

I agree. The design is inexcusable. 90+MPH into one of those things would do massive damage to a racecar not to mention a body on a skate or several bodies in a fiberglass box.