Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died on Thursday, nine days after crashing at the bottom of the superpipe during a training run in Utah.
Burke, who lived in Squamish, B.C., was 29. She was injured Jan. 10 while training at a personal sponsor event at the Park City Mountain resort.
Canadian Freestyle CEO Peter Judge said Burke’s death is a huge loss for just for her sport, but sport itself.
“She transcended her sport and certainly was an icon in the broader sport perspective and that was reflected in her being recognized for an ESPY,” Judge said in an interview.
Burke passed away Thursday morning in hospital in Salt Lake City, nine days after sustaining a serious head injury in a fall while training in the superpipe at Park City, Utah.
The Midland, Ont., native was considered to be one of the gold medal favourites for Sochi 2014 when ski halfpipe makes its Olympic debut.
“I think she was probably, in many ways, the face, the name and the brand people identified with, having being involved right from the very beginning,” said Judge. “She was at the forefront of the sport all the way through.”
The Canadian Freestyle Association said in a news release that Burke died from a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four main arteries that supplies blood to the brain.
“Sarah passed away peacefully surrounded by those she loved,” the association said in a statement.
Tests revealed Burke sustained “irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest,” according to a statement released by Burke’s publicist.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark made the following statement today on the death of Burke: “I was saddened to hear of the passing of freestyle skier Sarah Burke, of Whistler. Sarah was a shining light in both the British Columbia and world skiing community. Her passing in Utah hospital today, as the result of a training accident last week, is a devastating loss to her family and her sport.
“On behalf of all British Columbians, I extend condolences to Sarah’s family, to her colleagues and to all members of the ski community on the loss of a true star.”
At the time of the Jan. 10 accident, Burke went into cardiac arrest and was resuscitated on the hill.
Reporters gathered at Salt Lake City hospital last Monday for what was expected to be a discussion by doctors of Burke’s most recent neurological tests and assessments.
At the last minute, however, Burke’s agent, Michael Spencer, and her publicist, Nicole Wool, said there was nothing the family wanted to report as doctors continued working on Burke, so the news conference was cancelled.
“Obviously, this is a sensitive situation,” a sombre Wool said Monday at the University of Utah Hospital.
In a statement Monday, Burke’s husband, Rory Bushfield, and other family members said they decided not to meet with reporters after discussing results from the skier’s latest brain scans and reflex tests.
A day after the accident, doctors said they repaired a tear to an artery that caused bleeding on her brain. They said she tore a vertebral artery, which is located in the neck and supplies blood to the brain stem and the back part of the brain. Those parts control many critical functions, including balance and vision.
Burke was a four-time Winter X Games champion and had been scheduled to defend her 2011 title later this month in Aspen, Colorado. Burke tried many of the toughest tricks in her sport and was the first woman to land a 1080 — three full revolutions — in competition.
Before the accident, Burke was on a path that would have made her an odds-on favourite to win more X Games gold and possibly even the big prize in the 2014 Winter Games.
She fell while training at a personal sponsor event at the Park City Mountain Resort, an accident that witnesses said didn’t look as bad as it later turned out to be.
Burke was on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury after a near-fatal fall on Dec. 31, 2009.
Pearce spent months in hospitals in Utah and Colorado, then missed the 2010 Olympics. Last month, 712 days after his traumatic brain injury, he got on a snowboard again in Breckenridge, Colorado, according to his website.
Pearce, now 24, has said he has no plans to compete again because “snowboarding has become too dangerous.”
Burke’s accident once again brings up questions about the safety of the sport, and superpipes in general, which have walls soaring as high as 22 feet — more than 25 per cent higher since the middle of the last decade.
Experts within the sport believe improved pipe-building technology, along with airbags and mandatory helmets have made the sport safer, not more dangerous.
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