2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony - Georgia entering cropped

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

participated in the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gret ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It marked the fifth time since gaining independence that Georgia sent a delegation, though it had previously competed since

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

as a member of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Eight athletes competed in three sports, with none of them winning a medal. On the day of the opening ceremony, Georgian luger

Nodar Kumaritashvili , nationality = Georgian , hometown = Bakuriani, Georgia , birth_date = , birth_place = Borjomi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union , death_date = , death_place = Whistler, British Columbia, Canada , he ...

died in an accident while practicing for the games.

Alpine skiing

Three athletes competed in skiing events: Iason Abramashvili and Jaba Gelashvili in both men's giant slalom and slalom, and Nino Tsiklauri in women's giant slalom and slalom.

Figure skating

Three athletes competed in two figure skating events for Georgia: Elene Gedevanishvili competed in ladies' singles, while Allison Reed and Otar Japaridze competed in

ice dancing Ice dance (sometimes referred to as ice dancing) is a discipline of figure skating that historically draws from ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. A ...

. Reed and Japaridze qualified for the Olympics at the 2009 Nebelhorn Trophy, where they placed twelfth. Reed, originally from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, became a Georgian citizen in January 2010. They finished 22nd overall at the Olympics.

Luge

Two athletes were qualified for the luge, with both Levan Gureshidze and

set to make their Olympics' debut. However, on February 12, the day of the Opening Ceremony, Kumaritashvili crashed during a training run and was killed. The Whistler Sliding Centre, which recorded some of the fastest speeds in luge, experienced several accidents occurred during training runs leading up to the start of the games. Going into the final turn of the course at speeds of , he crashed into the side of the turn, sending him into a steel support pillar, and died shortly after. The

International Luge Federation The International Luge Federation ( French: Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL); German: Internationaler Rennrodelverband) is the main international federation for all luge sports. Founded by 13 nations at Davos, Switzerland in ...

immediately called an emergency meeting after the incident, and all other training runs were called off for the day. Saying he "couldn't go on," Gureshidze withdrew from the competition out of respect for his teammate.

References

{{Nations at the 2010 Winter Olympics Olympics Nations at the 2010 Winter Olympics 2010 Winter sports in Georgia (country)