to move up and down
Whistler says goodbye to Sarah Burke
The dull grey skies over Blackcomb Mountain were punctuated by the staccato rhythm of helicopter blades Tuesday afternoon in a solemn flyby tribute for fallen freeskier Sarah Burke.
It was her “moment of noise” rather than silence — a salute to the 29-year-old who lived life larger than most, defying the odds of gravity in the superpipe and setting new heights for women freeskiers around the world.
Close to 200 of Burke’s family and friends, candles in hand, lined Blackcomb’s superpipe. It was their private goodbye in Whistler to the world champion and four-time X Games gold medallist who died three months ago to the day, after a fall in a superpipe in Utah. Photo: Bonny Makarewicz for Postmedia News
In memory
Canadian Roz Groenewoud won the gold medal in the women’s ski superpipe at the X-Games in Aspen, Colorado on Saturday. She dedicated her win to fallen teammate Sarah Burke.
Burke, who would have been the favourite in women’s ski superpipe coming into the X-Games, died on Jan. 19 a week after a serious training accident in Park City, Utah. Photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Sarah Burke: Too young, too smart, to go that way
Canada’s women’s soccer team stands for a moment of silence to remember freestyle skier Sarah Burke prior to their Olympic qualifying soccer game against Haiti in Vancouver. Burke passed away earlier on Thursday following a training accident last week.
From the Post’s Joe O’Connor: Her death stings, because it is unfair, because Sarah Burke was too young and too smart and too pretty and too warm and too well-liked and too remarkable, as an athlete, to leave us so soon.
Plug her name into Youtube and watch clips of the 29-year-old B.C. skier taking flight, blasting out of a superpipe and soaring up, up, with the blue sky as a backdrop and gravity, an earthly annoyance, as her only limit.
Ms. Burke twists. Twirls. Flips. She makes us gasp, and it is amazing to see, especially now, knowing that every clip is a reminder and a memorial to a gifted skier who pushed the boundaries of her sport.
Pushed them so hard and so far that Ms. Burke won four X-game titles, five World Cups and a world championship. She is the reason why the Olympic old boys club added women’s ski halfpipe to the program for Sochi 2014. (Photo: REUTERS/Andy Clark)
Sarah Burke, the Canadian skiing star who was badly injured in a training accident in Utah last week, has died after suffering a cardiac arrest, it was announced on Thursday. As a result of her fall, Burke suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, explained here. Graphic: Mike Faille/National Post
Sarah Burke in pictures
Considered one of the leading half-pipe athletes in the world, Burke was among the early favorites to win the Olympic gold medal in her sport at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.
She died at age 29 on Thursday from injuries suffered after a serious fall during a training run in Utah. Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Canadian skier Sarah Burke dead at 29
Sarah Burke, the skiing star who was badly injured in a training accident in Utah last week, has died from her injuries, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association announced on Thursday.
The Midland, Ont. native was in an induced coma after suffering a serious injury during a training run at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort on Jan. 10. She was 29.
“As the result of Sarah’s fall, she suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four major arteries supplying blood to the brain. The rupture of this artery led to a severe intracranial hemorrhage, which caused Sarah to go into cardiac arrest on the scene. Emergency personnel responded and CPR was administered on the scene during which time she remained without a pulse or spontaneous breathing,” the association said in a statement from Burke’s publicist.
While it appeared there was brainstem function after the injuries, subsequent tests showed Burke had “sustained severe irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest.” Photo: Danny Moloshok/Reuters
Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke in coma after serious crash
Canadian halfpipe freestyle skier Sarah Burke was in critical condition and in a coma Tuesday night after being airlifted to hospital in Salt Lake City, following a crash in the halfpipe at a sponsors event at Park City, Utah earlier in the day.
Burke, of Whistler, B.C., a pioneer in the sport and a former X Games champion, suffered a fall on the Park City Mountain Resort’s Eagle superpipe. Late Tuesday afternoon the national team’s medical staff was attempting to call the hospital to get updated information. Early reports indicated that Burke had to be resuscitated on the hill before being flown to hospital. The rest of the Canadian team is currently training at Whistler.
Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said he and his organization were in a state of shock when they got the news.
“Very much so,” he said Tuesday night. “Someone like her, someone who has always been a spokesperson for her sport and always out in front, you just don’t imagine those kind of things happening. (Photo: Mike Ridewood/Canadian Freestyle Ski Association)
