Winter Olympics: Georgian luger's dream fulfilled by cousin 12 years after tragedy

«May you carry his Olympic dream on your shoulders and compete with his spirit in your heart.»

Those were the words the grieving athletes heard at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Games after Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a training crash just hours earlier.

They could also have been directed at his then nine-year-old cousin Saba.

Now 21, Saba has become the first Georgian luger to compete at an Olympics at Beijing 2022.

His cousin would have held that honour had it not been for the events that plunged the Games into grief and reminded the world of the dangers of a sport in which an athlete travels down an icy track at speeds of more than 85mph on a tiny sled wearing a skin-tight suit and a helmet.

Saba is the same age as Nodar was when he was killed when his sled flipped and he smashed into a steel pole at the Whistler Sliding Centre.

His sled had struck the inside of the track's last turn during his sixth and final training run, sending him into the air and over a concrete wall.

For many people it would have been understandable for the Kumaritashvili family to never go near luge again.

But it is in their blood.

Saba's great grandfather oversaw the building of Georgia's first luge training track half a century ago and also served as head coach. His father served as president of the country's luge federation, and his cousin is now in that role.

«The entire Kumaritashvili family always was and still is very passionate for luge,» executive director of the International Luge Federation (FIL), Christoph Schweiger, told BBC Sport.

«I personally never heard one single word from whomever within the Kumaritashvili family that they are done with luge — that they don't want to be part of it anymore. I think that says