IT’S terrific to see winter sports in action once again.

Ice Hockey is amazing. Same with skiing. And what better place to do it than Vancouver in Canada.

But a death in the early stages last week showed perhaps how dangerous these sports are and how these sportsmen must be admired.

21-year-old Norad Kumaritashvili lost his life at the Vancouver Winter Olympics on Friday after losing control and smashing his head on a metal pole at the side of the luge track.

“He called me before the Olympics, three days ago, and he said, ‘Dad, I’m scared of one of the turns,’ ” his father David Kumaritashvili told journalists at his home.

“I said put your legs down on the ice to slow down but he said if he started the course he would finish it. … He was brave,” David Kumaritashvili said outside his home in the rural town of Bakuriani in the Republic of Georgia.

Nodar Kumaritashvili’’s father said his son had dreamt of competing at the Olympics since he was a young child.

It really does make you stand up and admire the athletes that get through these events; let alone win gold.