That woman above is Sue Sweeney, mother of American luger Emily Sweeney, watching on in horror after her daughter’s high-speed crash during yesterday’s women’s singles competition.

Emily was on her final run when things went pear-shaped and she began to careen all over the track, eventually being thrown from her sled.

According to Stuff, she was travelling in excess of 110 km/ h when the crash happened:

Many in the crowd looked at the monitors, horrified. The stands were filled with fans cheering raucously, and they immediately went silent waiting for some sort of sign that Sweeney would be all right.

You’d fall silent too if this happened in front of you:

Thankfully Emily did eventually get to her feet, later commenting that she was OK and suffered just bumps and bruises:

“I know I caught a good amount of air going in to (turn) 12, and I just couldn’t stop it…There’s a lot of pressures in these big curves, and unfortunately I was not taking them correctly, so it was pretty rough.”

She said she felt sore and stiff after her big spill.

“I’m going to go get an X-ray on my back after this, but I wanted to have the last word,” she said. “So, thanks for all the support, guys. Yeah, it’s a bummer, for sure, and I know I’m better than that, but here we are. It happens.”

Walk it off, champ.

[source:stuff]