VANCOUVER, British Columbia  The Vancouver Olympics were set to open with the most daunting and dangerous collection of events the Winter Games had ever seen, but before the competitions even began, a luge athlete died in a high-speed crash that overshadowed Friday night’s opening ceremony and intensified concerns over the safety of the Games.

The athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili of the Republic of Georgia, lost control of his sled near the end of his training run while traveling nearly 90 miles an hour  about as fast as any luger had ever gone before the Whistler Sliding Centre track was completed in 2007.

The sled, with Kumaritashvili riding atop on his back, feet first, bounced off a side wall and threw Kumaritashvili over the short ice-covered concrete wall on the left. He slammed into vertical supports that hold a canopy and lights over the course. Medics arrived immediately, and Kumaritashvili was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Kumaritashvili, from Borjomi, Georgia, was 21.

Hours after the accident, Georgia’s Olympic athletes wore black armbands as they marched in the opening ceremony.