The Georgian luger killed at the Winter Olympics on Friday had told his father that he feared the lightning-quick track in Whistler.

In a call home shortly before he was thrown from his luge on a fast corner, Nodar Kumaritashvili told his father: "Dad, I really fear that curve,' "

The news came soon after it emerged that the authorities have been considering an 85mph speed limit for new tracks. The record speed at Whistler is 95mph.

David Kumaritashvili, a former luger himself, told the Associated Press that he told his son to "just take a slower start". "But [Nodar] responded, 'Dad, what kind of thing you are teaching me? I have come to the Olympics to try to win.' "

Nodar, 21, died during practice, when he lost control and slammed into a trackside steel pole at nearly 90 miles an hour. "I haven't and I won't see that footage [of the accident]," his father said. "I still can't fully realise that he's dead."

His face lined and shoulders bent in anguish, David Kumaritashvili paused to recall details of one of his last conversations with his son. "He told me, 'I will either win or die,'" he said. "But that was youthful bravado: he couldn't be seriously talking about death."

Concerns about the course had been raised before practice began. There were worries that the C$100 million-plus venue was too technically demanding, and that only the host nation's sliders would have had enough practice time to adapt. "They tested that track on my son," David Kumaritashvili said.

In a joint statement, the luge federation and Vancouver Olympic officials blamed the accident on the athlete, saying Kumaritashvili was late coming out of the next-to-last turn and failed to compensate.

His 46-year-old father angrily rejected this. "My son was training since he was 14, he ran tracks in France, Austria and Canada, and he never suffered an injury," said the former luge champion of the Soviet Union.

The Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili has also criticised the organisers, saying that an athlete's mistake shouldn't result in his death.

It has also emerged that a speed limit for new luge tracks had been discussed shortly before the fatal crash, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The paper quotes the president of the International Luge Federation as saying: "We discussed a speed limit before the tragic events because we had the experience that the speeds were always getting higher."

Josef Fendt added that discussions had centred on a limit at future luge tracks of 85 miles an hour. Fendt insisted that the Whistler track was safe, even though the speed record is 95mph, or 10mph higher than the federation's proposed limit.

Fendt said the run was supposed to have a top speed of 87mph, which is why the federation did not address it. He admitted that many lugers were "surprised" at the higher speeds, which he attributed to the unpredictability of designing runs and to advances in technology and technique. "There's more to it than just the track," he said.

The Georgian president has promised Kumaritashvili's family that his body will be flown home as quickly as formalities allow. No date has yet been set for the funeral.