Georgia president: Human error should not prove fatal in sport

Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili said everything should be done to avoid an error by an athlete leading to death, but he stopped short of criticising officials Saturday, dpa reported.

"Mistakes do happen in sport but we are talking about sports where there is competitiveness, where there is danger, but we should avoid whatever cause of death could be," he told reporters in Vancouver.

The International Luge Federation FIL had concluded that Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili made an error which contributed to his fatal crash in training the previous day.

It has since heightened the wall at Whistler where Kumaritashvili came off the track and has made some other changes, while concluding that "there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track."

Asked whether he believed there was any negligence on the behalf of the Games organizers or FIL, Saakashvili said: "I have not said that at all. I did not say there was negligence.

"It's precisely up to the inquiry to determine what has happened, but I heard this on television, that this (accident) was because of human error, and I believe that any human error should not lead to the death of an athlete."

Saakashvili also dismissed suggestions that 21-year-old Kumaritashvili was an inexperienced athlete.

"Questions were asked about this place (the sliding track). There were some suggestions that the wall should have been higher there because there was the eventuality of this happening.

"Good news is that they've built it now, but I think the best news would be in the future, listen more to the grievances of sportsmen, listen more to the sensitivities and we don't have to do things in the aftermath."

The president said the Georgian delegation did the right thing by staying at the Games, and the country was now planning to commemorate Kumaritashvili.

"What we are thinking to do now is to build a new track in his hometown named after him because he had to train for all these years in different European countries for lack of adequate facilities," he said.