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Sarah Burke: 1982 to 2012

Freeskier succumbs to injury sustained on Jan. 10
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Freeskier Sarah Burke passed away at 9:22 a.m. Thursday, (Jan. 19) at the University of Utah Hospital, almost nine days after sustaining a head injury during a halfpipe training run at Park City.

Burke, 29, is an X Games champion and member of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team who was favoured to win the women's ski halfpipe event when that sport debuts at the 2014 Games in Sochi.

According to reports, she went into cardiac arrest after her crash and was resuscitated onsite by ski patrol, who quickly transported her by helicopter to a hospital in Salt Lake City. She successfully underwent surgery at the University of Utah Hospital the next day to repair a ruptured vertebral artery, but never regained consciousness. Her family, parents Jan and Gordon and husband Rory Bushfield, who she resided with in Squamish, were at her side within 24 hours of the accident.

A press conference on her condition was scheduled for Jan. 16, but cancelled after the results of diagnostic scans. It was released Thursday that the scans showed irreversible brain damage due to the lack of oxygen and blood after her cardiac arrest.

According to a release for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association (CFSA), the death was the result of the cardiac arrest rather than damage from the head injury.

CFSA CEO Peter Judge spoke at a conference call on Thursday afternoon.

"It's with great sadness that we at (CFSA) learned of Sarah's passing earlier this morning," he said. "Certainly our hearts go out to Rory, her husband, and to her family, and to her coach Trennon Paynter who was with her much of her time in sports. It's certainly a very difficult time for them."

Judge said that the CFSA will be supporting Burke's teammates - some of whom were at the Dew Tour event at Killington, Vermont, or training for the Winter X Games the following weekend - using resources such as sport and clinical psychologists. They also made those resources available to Burke's family members.

When asked to describe Burke, Judge used words like "outgoing" and "gregarious."

"She was someone who certainly saw her place in the world and what she was doing as a gift, and something she truly loved doing - and that went all the way through everything she did, whether she was on hill competing, or being involved in coaches and camps and working with young people. Or when she was off doing philanthropic things, like working with charities and giving back."

Judge said there was still a lot of disbelief that Burke could have been injured fatally in the accident. She had just landed a flatspin 540, a trick that she had been doing for almost a decade and was one of the easier tricks in her repertoire, and fell over onto her head. Athletes who saw it said it didn't look like anything major, and were surprised when she didn't pop up immediately.

When asked if her helmet may have been a factor, Judge said, "It's pretty clear this injury was more of a freak accident than it was caused by anything in specific terms... those around her are having a tough time reconciling the nature of the injury with what eventually transpired. It seems to me more of a fluke outcome than anything else. Sarah was involved in creating the safety mechanisms for her to train, and for the kids to learn underneath her. She was involved in the evolution of pipes and clothing and safety equipment... safety was paramount to her."

Rather than flowers, Burke's family has asked that donations be sent to the Give Forward fund, www.giveforward.com/sarahburke, to assist with the cost of her treatment, estimated over half a million dollars. It's unknown how Burke was insured, or how much of her medical costs will be covered and by who.

Remembering Sarah

Pique Sports Editor Andrew Mitchell has followed Burke's career since the beginning. Below he shares some of his memories:

I don't claim to know Sarah Burke particularly well, but I've met her dozens of times at competitions and know her well enough to be certain that anyone who has ever met her, spent time with her, or watched her ski is deeply saddened by her loss. In the ski world she was nothing short of royalty, beloved by her many subjects.

I arrived in Whistler in the summer of 1999 and that first winter with Pique I was able to attend some of the very first freeski events ever held in Whistler, or the world for that matter. Twin-tip skis were new, as was the whole concept of taking them into the terrain park to mix it up with snowboarders.

By the start of the 2000-2001 season, people were already talking about Sarah Burke. A freestyle skier back in Ontario, she was one of the first women to get into the sport at a high level - and through her amazing career she has remained on top of it while constantly pushing the envelope. She was the first female skier to land a 720, 900 and 1080 spins in competition, as well as a variety of corked and inverted tricks.

During her career she lived Whistler, had a stint in California and then returned to B.C. where she set up her life in Squamish - close to Whistler to ski, work and train, close to Vancouver to catch flights to wherever her life as the pre-eminent woman in freeskiing took her. She's travelled the world a dozen times over and always made Canada proud.

In her career she's competed in every type of freeski event, from big air to slopestyle contests, and had the distinction in the early days of being the only woman asked (or allowed) to compete at some events, simply because there weren't any women out there competing at her level yet. As a coach at the summer Momentum Ski Camps in Whistler she actually coached a lot of the young skiers who would rise up to challenge her supremacy in the sport. But although Burke didn't win every event, on her best day she was always the skier by which others would be judged.

Take the 2010-2011 season; Burke had surgery on her shoulder that summer to keep it from popping out every time she crashed, and planned to take it easy and only compete in a handful of events. She picked up her fourth X Games superpipe title, and followed up with back-to-back World Cup gold medals.

While she no doubt had a lot of natural ability, there's also no question that she reached the top through hard work. At a jam halfpipe contest she would hike the pipe over and over to squeeze in as many runs as she could before the clock ran out, even if she had the win in the bag. And when there was a one-hit SuperHit contest, like at the World Skiing Invitational in Whistler, she'd always take part with the top men and get in as many tricks as time allowed - not to win the extra cash or snowmobile necessarily, but to try new things and squeeze in a few more tricks on a competition-quality pipe. Another run was another opportunity.

In 2007-2008, after being recognized as one of the top women in her sport, Burke decided to join a fledgling, completely self-funded national halfpipe program. The athletes paid to be part of it, essentially covering the cost of bringing coach Trennon Paynter along as they travelled the world and competed. Those skiers knew the value of coaching, and Burke's involvement brought a lot of positive attention to the sport, which no doubt played a role in its eventual acceptance in the Olympic Games. It helped that she was such a great spokesperson for it as well and living proof of its athleticism.

As Peter Judge noted, "She always approached sports with a 'why not?' perspective, whether as a young athlete or a girl on the sidelines at the WSSF asking 'why can't girls compete in the big air along with the guys?' I think she carried that thought process through her career and certainly going into it when it became more formalized and halfpipe became a larger entity... 'Why not have success? Why not create the same kinds of things other national teams do and have the advantage of a coach?'"

Since her injury, a lot of commentators in the media have questioned whether the sport of ski halfpipe is too dangerous, but Burke and the others in her sport know the risks better than anyone else and don't take them lightly. For every run they take in competition they take hundreds, maybe even thousands, of training runs. They train year-round to be perfect, on trampolines and water ramps, with air bags and in every size and type of halfpipe. They're laid back and funny when you meet them, but you can't ignore the fact that these are highly trained professionals with years of training under their belts.

The reality is that she fell after landing a flatspin 540, a trick she could probably do in her sleep - a warm-up, if anything, to bigger and more difficult tricks. Calling ski halfpipe too dangerous after this accident would be like saying alpine ski racing is too dangerous after an athlete got injured skiing a green run.

The lesson is not that the sport is dangerous, it's that life is dangerous and unpredictable but still worth living to its fullest. Because she took a few more risks than the average person, Burke lived a life and experienced things that only a few people in the world can understand and appreciate.

As a reporter on the sidelines since the beginning of her career, I can say that Burke was a gracious winner and loser, always friendly and always personable. It was no act - this was a woman doing exactly what she wanted to be doing, and loving every minute of it. I'll miss seeing her friendly face, her smile, her attitude.

In obituaries, people will comment on her beauty, on her kindness, on her work ethic, on her contributions to her sport. All of it will be true.

It was a privilege to know you Sarah. You won't be forgotten.