Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke dead at 29

REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/Files

Sarah Burke, a four-time Winter X Games champion in halfpipe skiing, has been one of the leading pioneers to have it included in the Olympics.

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.”

The publicist’s statement said Burke passed away peacefully with her family at her side.

Burke was the best-known athlete in her sport and will be remembered for the legacy she left for women in freestyle skiing.


REUTERS/Danny Moloshok/Files

Burke was injured Tuesday during training on the superpipe for a sponsor’s event at Park City Mountain Resort and was airlifted to the Salt Lake City hospital.
.She set the standard for skiing in the superpipe, a sister sport to the more popular snowboarding brand that has turned Shaun White, Hannah Teter and others into stars.

Seeing what a big role the Olympics has played in pushing the Whites of the world from the fringes into the mainstream, Burke lobbied to add superpipe skiing to the Olympic program, using the argument that no new infrastructure would be needed – the pipe was already built – and the Olympics could get twice the bang for their buck.

She won over the Olympic bigwigs, and the discipline will debut at the Sochi Games in 2014.