The father of a Georgian luger killed on the first day of the 2010 Olympics is angry that Vancouver officials didn't act on their own concerns about the luge track's safety.
In the aftermath of Nodar Kumaritashvili's death, both luge officials and Olympic organizers maintained they believed the track was safe.
But internal emails released Monday disclose that the chief executive officer of the Games raised concerns almost a year earlier that athletes could be injured "or worse" at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
But since International Luge Federation officials didn't demand changes to the track, nothing was done.
David Kumaritashvili told the Associated Press on Monday that the organizing committee's failure to take action led to the death of his son.
"I am indignant that they were aware that the track was dangerous and failed to make it safer, they did not take any measures. And that led to the death of my son," he said.
"And only his death prompted them to take the necessary measures. As I already not once said, maybe his death helped to save other lugers' lives."
Games CEO John Furlong insisted in a conference call with reporters on Monday that he wasn't personally concerned the track was dangerous.
Instead, he said he was reading between the lines of a letter from the International Luge Federation (FIL) to the track's German designer, who was also building the track for the 2014 Games in Sochi.
In the letter, FIL suggested they didn't want to see a repeat of the mistakes made in construction of the Whistler track, which saw speeds of 154 km/hour.
The standard is usually around 135 km/hour.
"Imbedded in this note (cryptic as it may be) is a warning that the track is in their view too fast and someone could get badly hurt," Furlong wrote in March 2009 e-mail.
"An athlete gets badly injured or worse and I think the case could be made we were warned and did nothing."
The e-mails and other documents associated with the B.C. Coroner's investigation into the accident were first uncovered by the CBC via an access to information request.
They were provided by Games organizing committee spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade to other media outlets.
The B.C. coroner had concluded that speed and training decisions played roles in the horrific crash that instantly killed 21-year-old Kumaritashvili.
Safety standards at the luge track simply weren't good enough to prevent the death, even though all the best practices available at the time were followed, the coroner wrote in the report.
Kumaritashvili, who was ranked 44th in World Cup standings out of 70 athletes, also didn't attend all of the scheduled test runs.
Furlong said his response to the FIL letter was meant to spur his staff to make sure there was no changes they were supposed to be making to the track.
"They are talking about concerns they have about speed and when you hear people talking about this, you are obviously going to have thoughts about it," he said.
"It was an attempt to draw everybody's attention to make sure the things we needed to do are done and our team did exactly what I would have expected of them."
Changes had been suggested to the Whistler track as early as 2005, after a series of crashes at test events for the 2006 Games in Turin.
The track there was changed, sparking a discussion about whether the Whistler track also needed to be fixed.
"We have been informed by (the track designer Udo) Gurgel that should modifications to the six corners not be made, it is very likely that the same issues as Torino will be encountered regardless of the luge athletes' skill and ability level," said a 2006 briefing note.
The corners included the one where Kumaritashvili died.
But the documents suggest FIL and the bobsleigh federation could not agree on potential changes and eventually they decided to just go ahead with the Whistler track as planned.
Craig Lehto, who ran the Whistler Sliding Centre during the Games, said the dangerous nature of the sport was always on everybody's mind.
"The sliding sports are very, very fast so at any time I think you're always on that aspect of trying to do the very best you can and that you've done what these (International Federations) have asked you do," he said in an interview Monday.
"You can't eliminate it from your mind, ever."
But the reality was, Lehto said, it was not the Vancouver committee's job to devise track specifications. It was up to the federations.
"They are the experts in these fields," he said.
FIL ordered dozens of tweaks to the track after pre-Olympic test events, and in the aftermath of the crash, the starting lines for the subsequent races were lowered to reduce speed.
Jon Montgomery, who won a gold medal in skeleton on the Whistler track during the Games, said no one could have foreseen the circumstances that lead to Kumaritashvili's death.
"What happened to Nodar was incredibly unforeseen and incredibly tragic and almost a perfect storm. You have three storm fronts coming together to create this massive tragedy. You cannot ever hypothesize that would have happened to Nodar."
Montgomery said he has no misgivings about the safety of the track.
"As far as I am concerned, as far as a lot of my sliding compatriots are concerned, it is an absolutely freak accident that should, and probably will, never happen again," he said."
In Furlong's new memoir, due to be released on the one-year anniversary of the Games, he spends considerable time dealing with the aftermath of Kumaritashvili's death.
He recounted how, upon learning of the young man's death, he felt like he lost a son.
In all the crisis scenarios devised around the Games, Furlong wrote, "never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the death of an athlete on opening day."
Furlong revealed in the book that the young luger's family received a $150,000 insurance payout from the organizing committee.
But he also delivered $25,000 in cash to the family himself when he attended a memorial service in Georgia.
"Their son had not been out of my thoughts since that tragic Friday," Furlong wrote.
"To visit his family would be healing for me as well."
Furlong said Monday he has not spoken to the family since.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
