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Sledding athletes are taking their lives

nytimes.com

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Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#121

Post by jmiserez »

t0mas88 wrote: post #82
inamberclad wrote: post #18

Those g numbers are insane. I would appreciate an FFT instead of a time-series graph but this is far beyond even a rocket launch.

There is a huge difference between a prolonged G-force (like a rocket launch or a fighter jet turning) and an instant reading (helmet hitting ice). A prolonged G-force in human performance studies in aviation is defined as 1 second or longer. A reading of more than +10g in the Z-axis will black out almost all humans. While instant readings as high as 200g have been measured in a survivable car crash. Falling from 1m…

>Falling from 1m and stopping in 1cm gets you an instant reading of 100g. And yet that doesn't sound very deadly at all.

It does though, if you fall directly on your head from that height. Even with a helmet that seems dangerous.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#122

Post by 205guy »

aebtebeten wrote: post #68

The Cresta Run has had to find its own underwriter because many refuse to cover sledding. I can't find it now, but at one point I was looking for "extreme sports" cover, and was surprised to see that even in that space, the Cresta was listed as an exception to coverage. https://www.cresta-run.com/ride-the-cresta/insurance/

I hadn't heard of this institution before, so I was checking out their website. This whole brain injury risk must be why they limit access to women:

https://www.cresta-run.com/ride-the-cresta/ride-the-cresta/

"Ladies will be able to use the Run strictly by invitation, at the discretion of the Committee and under the supervision of the Secretary (or his nominee) on the following occasions:" followed by a few days not even each month.

What a contrast to that Top Gear video linked by someone else (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzxS-3vO6Gw) where the male driver races the British Olympic skeleton gold medalist (skeleton vs car on nearby roads of same distance). Of course the car wins, but least they let her on the track.

/sarcasm

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#123

Post by CathedralBorrow »

doublesCs wrote: post #113

Isn't this a really small problem? If you were to sort by importance all the problems in the world, how close to the bottom would sledding athletes injurying themselves be? I feel sorry for those who already incurred lasting damage, but for the rest... it only depends on them to stop.

Why are you wasting all these words on something that is not at the top of your sorted list? What is the most important problem in the world?

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#124

Post by stefs »

libraryatnight wrote: post #59
racl101 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. Depending on people's level of courage, or lackthereof, all sports might seem like pointless self-destruction and misery . Heck, even basketball or ice curling. Heck, I would never in my right-mind try grinding a rail on a skateboard after seeing some kid break his leg on a bad landing. But just cause it looks insane to me doesn't mean it has no value or merit. Not to mention that it makes a fun video game…

I recommend the YouTube rabbit hole of Alex Honnold interviews, whenever he talks about risk it's interesting.

honnold may be a special case. his capabilities of dealing with risk and fear are exceptional.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#125

Post by imtringued »

im3w1l wrote: post #116
growlist wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that sentence is ambiguous. It could be that the guy on the skeleton team said the following: "I am a bit dopey, but it's okay because I have my girlfriend to take care of me"

That's the only way to read I was able to find. What's the other?

Girlfriend forces him to quit?

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#126

Post by ehnto »

mam2 wrote: post #70
ehnto wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used a helmet before? They don't track the heads movement very well. It's not that they lag behind or anything, they just move in completely different directions willy nilly. Even tight ones will have much sharper acceleration changes as they bounce around. I regularly wear a full face helmet with tight fitment and straps and it is moving way more than my head is. Is that notsosmart enough?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-pass_filter

You could filter it and make it look like what you think it should look like, but it would still be a measurement of the forces applied to the helmet not the head.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#127

Post by ehnto »

rob74 wrote: post #117
ehnto wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used a helmet before? They don't track the heads movement very well. It's not that they lag behind or anything, they just move in completely different directions willy nilly. Even tight ones will have much sharper acceleration changes as they bounce around. I regularly wear a full face helmet with tight fitment and straps and it is moving way more than my head is. Is that notsosmart enough?

Actually the whole point of having a helmet is to not have your head track its movements - if the acceleration transferred to your head would be the same as that suffered by the helmet, you might as well not wear one at all. Same as with old cars with a stiff body, where in an accident the passengers were subjected to almost the same deceleration as the front bumper. Using the front portion of the car as a crumple zo…

Newer helmets are designed to be loosely coupled in twisting motions as well as direct impacts too, reducing the ability for the helmet to transfer angular momentum (at least that's the stated goal)

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#128

Post by imtringued »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #44

This is how the world is shaping up -- winner take all, but so much competition to be that winner that the winner's life isn't worth it either.

Competition is weird. There is only one winner and the winner probably gets bored of being the best despite all the sacrifices. Meanwhile all the "losers" look up to the winner and dream of being the winner themselves. I guess it boils down to jealousy. Someone has something you don't have, it doesn't actually matter what the "something" is, it also doesn't matter if you harm yourself in the process.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#129

Post by imtringued »

doublesCs wrote: post #113

Isn't this a really small problem? If you were to sort by importance all the problems in the world, how close to the bottom would sledding athletes injurying themselves be? I feel sorry for those who already incurred lasting damage, but for the rest... it only depends on them to stop.

It's a competition. It only ends when everyone mutually agrees to stop.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#130

Post by doublesCs »

CathedralBorrow wrote: post #123
doublesCs wrote: post #113

Isn't this a really small problem? If you were to sort by importance all the problems in the world, how close to the bottom would sledding athletes injurying themselves be? I feel sorry for those who already incurred lasting damage, but for the rest... it only depends on them to stop.

Why are you wasting all these words on something that is not at the top of your sorted list? What is the most important problem in the world?

> Why are you wasting all these words on something that is not at the top of your sorted list?

I wrote that out of curiosity about why such an article would end up on the front page of HN. Yes, I understand that HN isn't just business and tech, it's "interesting things" - but why is this article interesting? Since I don't find it interesting, maybe some people found this an important issue, I thought?

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