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Sledding athletes are taking their lives

nytimes.com

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Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#141

Post by Invictus0 »

usgroup wrote: post #101
gnramires wrote: post #19

This seems totally unacceptable. We should stop having this sport in the Olympics (implicitly supporting this madness) -- of course athletes are free to do as they chose, but we cannot encourage such pointless self-destruction and misery. An alternative to save the sport is completely redesign it to limit maximum accelerations. Usually injuries follow power laws so I doubt even that much reduction would be necessary…

I think the Olympics is just generally physically bad for the athletes. Runners, weightlifters, wrestlers, boxers, rowers, etc all these folks end up working so close o the edge of sustainable human tolerance and capacity that’s it’s unlikely they are not constantly going over it.

I don't understand this comment; what is physically bad about running? I'll accept that you may have a higher rate of injuries but surely we can agree that pulling a muscle and giving yourself Parkinson's are not remotely in the same ballpark of injuries.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#142

Post by ubercow13 »

vaidhy wrote: post #35
pengaru wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except measuring G-forces acting on a helmet doesn't directly relate to the forces acting on the head within it.

Are you perhaps confusing impact with g-force? A good analogy would be a fighter pilot or an astronaut. The g-force is felt all over the body irrespective of whether you are wearing a suit or not.

The g-force spikes in the graph are due to impacts. It even says that on the graph.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#143

Post by doublesCs »

imtringued wrote: post #129
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.

hmm no? I walk away when I decide to walk away, regardless of what "everyone" is doing.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#144

Post by stareatgoats »

roel_v wrote: post #131
stareatgoats wrote: post #94

Our culture is rife with such, arenas where (mostly young) people put their life and health at risk for the merriment of the couch potatoes that make up the bulk of the public. We can't outlaw it as long as there are people who rely on it for their livelihood, and large swathes of the populace are insensitive to the sufferings of strangers to the point of enjoying it, immensely.

"people put their life and health at risk for the merriment of the couch potatoes" This is not true. People would do it anyway, it's just that the couch potatoes now provide a way for the people doing it to actually get paid. You cannot be an athlete with your only motivation being 'it'll amuse others'. You need some sort of intrinsic motivation to get at least somewhat good at something. People would fight for fun b…

> This is not true

Of course it is not true in an absolute sense, but take away the entertainment business from these risky sports and you'd be left with a mere trickle of people who do it merely for the kicks.

I'm obviously a lone voice in the desert, but I'm fed up with the show of "what a tragedy" and "thoughts and prayers" every time yet another young life gets squashed because a substantial segment of the populace will pay to have a dose of adrenaline through the death defying acts of daring of others, or have their unprocessed and suppressed aggression vented by proxy.

Needs that are nurtured by the industry, with hardly any opposition (nowadays).

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#145

Post by pintxo »

btilly wrote: post #65
gnramires wrote: post #19

This seems totally unacceptable. We should stop having this sport in the Olympics (implicitly supporting this madness) -- of course athletes are free to do as they chose, but we cannot encourage such pointless self-destruction and misery. An alternative to save the sport is completely redesign it to limit maximum accelerations. Usually injuries follow power laws so I doubt even that much reduction would be necessary…

It would not be the first Olympic sport redesigned for safety concerns. The first one that I am aware of is Javelin. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelin_throw#Javelin_redesign... for more.

That case though was about safety of the audience, says the article.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#146

Post by EthanHeilman »

ChrisLomont wrote: post #119
amelius wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could do it with a weight on a spring, and a little pen attached to the weight.

That won’t handle the number of degrees of freedom a bobsled uses.

Just thinking this through, wouldn't three weights on springs get you all the data? Or some sort of membrane containing a liquid than ruptures when a particular amount of force is felt in any direction?

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#147

Post by amelius »

ChrisLomont wrote: post #119
amelius wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could do it with a weight on a spring, and a little pen attached to the weight.

That won’t handle the number of degrees of freedom a bobsled uses.

True. How about suspending a little metal bullet in a gel, chosen such that the bullet will break through the gel if the G-force is more than a certain threshold. This will give a good indication if the forces are within an acceptable range.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#148

Post by amelius »

EthanHeilman wrote: post #146
ChrisLomont wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That won’t handle the number of degrees of freedom a bobsled uses.

Just thinking this through, wouldn't three weights on springs get you all the data? Or some sort of membrane containing a liquid than ruptures when a particular amount of force is felt in any direction?

The problem with three axes is that the registration of the largest deviation by the pen happens for the axes independently.

Re: Sledding athletes are taking their lives

#149

Post by 082349872349872 »

205guy wrote: post #122
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…

That the St. Moritz Toboggan Club committee sticks by nineteenth century customs in the twenty-first might be circumstantial evidence for the brain-addling effect of too much high-velocity ice time?
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