Sarah Burke was a
Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the
superpipe event died from cardiac arrest following skiing accident she was 29.. She was a four-time
Winter X Games gold medalist, and won the
world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the
2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in
Utah.
(September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012)
Skiing career
As a teenage
moguls skier, Burke would often sneak onto the
Snowboard halfpipe at the end of the day.
[1] She was considered a pioneer in the sport of superpipe skiing, along with American
Kristi Leskinen. The pair were frequent competitors, and often against male skiers.
[2]
Burke won first place in the 2001 US Freeskiing Open in the
half-pipe event and finished second in slopestyle. When half-pipe made its debut at the
2005 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, she emerged as the first world champion.
[3] Burke is also a four-time
Winter X Games gold medalist in
freestyle skiing.
[4][5] She was the first woman ever to land a jump with 1080-degree rotation in competition.
[6]
She won
ESPN's 2001 Award for female skier of the year and was voted 2007's Best Female Action Sports Athlete at the
ESPY awards.
[7]
She regularly participated in skiing films, including
Propaganda, in which she showcased her skills by sliding huge rainbow rails, spinning a huge 540 in the pipe and throwing back-flips.
[8]
Burke was a known promoter of the superpipe skiing event, working to
have it added to the Olympic program. She failed to have the event added
in time for the
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but successfully lobbied the
International Olympic Committee to have the event added for the
2014 Sochi Games.
[1] Two years ahead of the games, she was considered a potential favourite for the gold medal in Sochi.
[9]
Personal life
Burke was born in
Barrie,
Ontario, and grew up in
Midland.
[1] She later resided in
Squamish, British Columbia.
[10]
She was voted number 91 on the
FHM-U.S.'s 100 Sexiest Women 2006 list.
[11]
On September 25, 2010, Burke married fellow freeskier
Rory Bushfield in
Pemberton, British Columbia.
[12]
Accident and death
On January 10, 2012, Burke was seriously injured while training on the Park City Mountain Resort Eagle superpipe in
Park City, Utah. This is the same superpipe where snowboarder
Kevin Pearce
was seriously injured in 2009. Onlookers reported that Burke had
completed a trick fairly well yet fell onto her head, and the accident
did not appear to be very severe.
[13] Moments later, however, she went into
cardiac arrest while still on the ski slope,
[14] making her chance of survival extremely low.
[15] She was resuscitated and airlifted to the University of Utah Hospital in
Salt Lake City, where she was reported to have been placed in an induced coma.
[16] The following day, she underwent neurosurgery to repair a tear in a
vertebral artery. She succumbed to her injuries on January 19, 2012.
[17]
According to her publicist, Burke's injuries had resulted in
"irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after
cardiac arrest."
[18] Her organs and tissues were donated as she requested before her death.
[1] Because the event at which she fell was unsanctioned and hosted by Burke's sponsor
Monster Energy,
Burke was not covered under the insurance policy that applied to her
when she competed for the Canada Freestyle Ski Association. The day
after her death, Burke's agent established a website to raise $550,000
to help pay her estimated $200,000 hospital costs and establish "a
foundation to honor Sarah's legacy and promote the ideals she valued and
embodied".
[19]
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