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Weekend, January 20-22, 2012 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Sarah Burke poses with her gold medal after winning the women’s skiing superpipe at Winter X Games 13 in 2009. Burke died Thursday of injuries she suered in a training accident. DOUG PENSINGER/GETTY IMAGES
Squamish’s Burke dies Damage to her brain was ‘irreversible’ following cardiac arrest suffered during superpipe accident Skier pushed to have her sport included in the 2014 Sochi Olympics Four-time X Games champ donated her organs Sarah Burke was an X Games star with a grass-roots mentality — a daredevil superpipe skier who understood the risks inherent to her sport and the debt she owed to it. The pioneering Canadian freestyler, who helped get superpipe accepted into the Olympics, died Thursday after a Jan. 10 crash during a training run in Park City, Utah. Burke was 29. Tests revealed she sustained “irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest,� according to
a statement released by her publicist, Nicole Wool, on behalf of the family. “Our hearts go out to Sarah’s husband Rory and her entire family,� Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said in a statement. “It’s difficult for us to imagine their pain and what they’re going through. Sarah was certainly someone who lived life to the fullest and in doing so was a significant example to our community and far beyond. “She will be greatly missed by all of us at the CFSA and the entire ski community.�
Wool said Burke’s organs and tissues were donated, as she had requested before the accident. “The family expresses their heartfelt gratitude for the international outpouring of support they have received from all the people Sarah touched,� the statement said. A four-time Winter X Games champion, Burke will be remembered as much for the hardware she collected as the legacy she left for women in superpipe skiing, a sister sport to the more popular snowboarding brand that has turned Shaun White,
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Hannah Teter and others into stars. Aware of the big role the Olympics played in pushing the Whites of the world from the fringes into the mainstream, Burke lobbied to add superpipe skiing to the Winter Games program, noting that no new infrastructure would be needed. Her arguments won over Olympic officials and the discipline will debut at the Sochi Games in 2014, where Burke likely would have been a favourite for the gold medal. “Sarah, in many ways, defines
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the sport,� Judge said before her death. “She’s been involved since the very, very early days as one of the first people to bring skis into the pipe. She’s also been very dedicated in trying to define her sport but not define herself by winning. For her, it’s been about making herself the best she can be rather than comparing herself to other people.� A native of Barrie, Ont., who grew up in nearby Midland before moving to Squamish, Burke won the ESPY in 2007 as female action sports athlete of the year. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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