The Netherlands has withdrawn from the four-man Olympic bobsled competition after its driver said today that he's lost confidence, while his coach criticised him for simply being "scared."
Edwin van Calker said his choice had "nothing" to do with the perilous Olympic sliding track, where a Georgian luge athlete died in a training crash and more than 30 competitors have crashed during the Vancouver Games. Instead, Van Calker said he simply could not drive well enough on the track to feel safe.
"We feel we made the right decision for now," Van Calker said. "It was a build-up of many things."
The Dutch team said it made the decision Monday night, and informed its national Olympic committee on Tuesday.
Dutch coach Tom de la Hunty said he tried to talk Van Calker - whose brother, Arnold van Calker, is also part of the four-man team - unsuccessfully into changing his mind.
"I think he'll regret this decision for the rest of his life," De la Hunty said. "I've told him that to his face."
De la Hunty has been outspoken already once before during the Vancouver Games. After US women's bobsledder Shauna Rohbock called the track "stupid fast" last week and said she worried about some teams getting down the surface safely, De la Hunty responded by telling a reporter, "If it's too fast, go home. Go and get married and have some children."
He didn't hold back when talking about his four-man team's decision to skip the Olympics either, and said it was a choice by solely by the Van Calker brothers.
"I've never seen someone get to a major event and not compete because they're scared," said De la Hunty, who added that the Van Calker brothers were also succumbing to family pressures after they saw Nodar Kumaritashvili die in a luge wreck at the track. "You keep your inner fears to yourself and do it."
The coach says he believes the Whistler Sliding Center track is safe and that Edwin van Calker "will be in for a lot of ridicule" in his home country. De la Hunty also said the decision will mark the end of Van Calker's bobsled driving career.
In the two-man competition, Edwin van Calker lost control of his sled but was able to complete the run. He and teammate Jansma Sybren finished 14th.
"It's a pity it is happening to us at the Olympics," said Arnold van Calker, who hurt his shoulder in a training crash on the Whistler track last year. "But confidence is everything."
