Sarah Burke

Sarah Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. 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.

Skiing career

As a teenage moguls skier, Burke would often sneak onto the Snowboard halfpipe at the end of the day. 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.

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 the2005 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, she emerged as the first world champion. Burke is also a four-time Winter X Games gold medalist infreestyle skiing. She was the first woman ever to land a jump with 1080-degree rotation in competition.

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.

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.

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. Two years ahead of the games, she was considered a potential favourite for the gold medal in Sochi.

Personal life

Burke was born in Barrie, Ontario, and grew up in Midland. She later resided in Squamish, British Columbia.

She was voted number 91 on the FHM-U.S.'s 100 Sexiest Women 2006 list.

On September 25, 2010, Burke married fellow freeskier Rory Bushfield in Pemberton, British Columbia.

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 Pearcewas 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. Moments later, however, she went into cardiac arrest while still on the ski slope, making her chance of survival extremely low. 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. The following day, she underwent neurosurgery to repair a tear in a vertebral artery. She succumbed to her injuries on January 19, 2012. 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." Her organs and tissues were donated as she requested before her death. 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 honour Sarah's legacy and promote the ideals she valued and embodied".