B.C. gold medallist Cassie Sharpe an icon for young girls
B.C. skier dedicates stellar performance to freestyle pioneer
Her old freestyle coach could tell by the look on Cassie Sharpe’s face after she’d won the Olympic gold medal in halfpipe just what it meant to her.
“The pride for me isn’t in the medal, it’s in that she did all she could do on that day,” said Stuart Robinson, who coached Sharpe at Mount Washington on Vancouver Island from 2009-14. “And for Cassie, that meant making history.”
Sharpe dedicated her sensational gold-medal performance on Monday to the memory of Sarah Burke, Canada’s pioneer female freestyle skier whose incessant lobbying is mostly responsible for the women’s event being part of the Winter Games.
Burke, an Ontario native who lived in Whistler, couldn’t convince the International Olympic Committee to include the women’s ski halfpipe in time for Vancouver 2010, but it was introduced at the next Games, in Sochi 2014.
Tragically, Burke died in January, 2012, when she ruptured an artery that supplies blood to the brain during a training crash. It caused cardiac arrest and the lack of oxygen resulted in irreversible brain damage. She died eight days later.
“Sarah gave her life for that,” Burke’s husband Rory Bushfield said of Sharpe’s performance when contacted by AP at his Whistler home. “It’s cool to sit back and enjoy it. It’s super-emotional for me.
“I could not be more proud of a Canadian.”
No one finished within three points of Sharpe’s 95.80 out of 100. For perspective, the winning score at Sochi four years ago was 89.
Sharpe does tricks other freestylers wouldn’t think of. Her 1080-degree corks, gaining massive air while doing tricks with her skis and hands, and then her perfect landings in a tight space are unparalleled.
And like Burke before her, Sharpe has become an icon to young girls entering the sport.
“Cassie attended the B.C. championships two years ago,” Simon Stubbs, past-president of the Mount Washington Freestyle Ski Club, said. “She brought her X Games gold medal and it was like chicks to a mother hen. The kids were enthralled.
“Cassie is setting the scale with her tricks, she goes a step further than any of the other girls.”
Not long ago, 15 years or so back, doing a 540-degree spin in the air (that is, one and a half turns) was enough to win a competition.
Robinson, Sharpe’s former coach, appreciates he was along for part of the ride.
“I definitely learned a lot coaching Cassie,” he said. “And I also got to experience the cool things with her. I saw Cassie do her first 360, her first backflip, win her first medal in competition.
“She is leading the way in her sport. Without a doubt, Cassie has the potential to become a legend.”