Freestyle skiers show support for injured Burke
Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke was in critical condition Wednesday after crashing in the halfpipe at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah the previous day.
The four-time X Games gold medalist was airlifted to a Salt Lake City hospital. Publicist Nicole Wool released a statement that said Burke remained intubated and sedated. The nature of her injuries was not disclosed.
Burke was to have surgery Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
Burke, 29, who is from Ontario but lives in Whistler, British Columbia, won her first X Games gold in 2001 and has since become a leader of the women’s freeskiing movement.
She was an advocate for the addition of freeski halfpipe to the Winter Olympics. The sport will make its Olympic debut in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.
“All of the women, and men for that matter, in freeskiing love and respect Sarah,” U.S. competitor Jen Hudak says. “She broke ground and opened so many doors for all of us. This is a very scary moment in women’s freeskiing, freeskiing as a whole really. But if there is anyone that can pull through this, it is Sarah. The whole world is behind her.”
The halfpipe at Park City is the same location where snowboarder Kevin Pearce fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2009.
“I skied the pipe the day before, and it was good,” Hudak said. “Park City’s pipe is notoriously the steepest and gnarliest pipe in the world; really quick transitions. And when you get caught slightly off, you slam hard.”