The head of the Irish Olympic team says the bobsleigh death track at the Vancouver Winter Olympics is too fast.

Chef de mission Siobhan Hoey says the track is "simply too fast."

"I have raised concerns over this particular track in the past, and so have many athletes. It's too fast, that's the bottom line," she told the Irish Independent.

Hoey's sister Aoife is one of the athletes who will hurtle down the same track where Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili (21) was killed Friday.

"The highest speed that Aoife had reached (previously) would have been in St Moritz in Switzerland. She surpassed that particular speed here. She said it was incredibly fast but she was happy. She said that it was a huge adrenalin rush."

Aoife Hoey and brakewoman Claire Bergin hit 89.5 mph in training "and that was without 100pc effort at the top of the track, so it is only going to be faster."