Sarah Burke Dies from injuries

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Canadian skier Sarah Burke dies of injuries
By Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died Thursday, nine days after crashing at the bottom of the superpipe during a training run in Utah.

Burke, who lived near Whistler in British Columbia, was 29. She was injured Jan. 10 while training at a personal sponsor event at the Park City Mountain resort.

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.

A four-time Winter X Games champion, Burke crashed on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident on Dec. 31, 2009.

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

www.universalsports.com/news-blogs/article/newsid=575742.html#canadian+skier+sarah+burke+dies+injuries

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Some sports are dangerous, some can be lethal. That's life.

[sadie]

Post by: CNN news blog editor Mallory Simon, CNN's Jason Hanna
Filed under: Canada • Skiing • Sports • Utah


Burke reportedly fell while trying a trick and "whiplashed" onto her side at Park City Mountain Resort's superpipe on January 10, officials have said. She ruptured a vertebral artery in the fall, leading to an intracranial hemorrhage that caused her to go into cardiac arrest at the accident site, according to a statement released by her publicist, Nicole Wool.

Emergency workers gave her CPR at the site, during which time she remained without a pulse or voluntary breathing. She was taken to a hospital, where she was put on life support and underwent successful surgery to repair the artery – one of four major arteries supplying blood to the brain - the next day, according to the statement.

But after the surgery, tests determined she suffered "irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest," the statement reads.

"Sarah passed away peacefully surrounded by those she loved," according to the statement.

Burke, a native of Ontario who lived in British Columbia, was 11th in the Association of Freeskiing Professionals overall rankings last year. She won four gold medals in the Winter X Games, the event she was training for at the time of last week's accident. She also won gold at the 2005 world championships in Finland and in 2007 received ESPN’s Best Female Action Sports Athlete award.

Burke is considered a pioneer of freestyle skiing and was a major force in getting the ski halfpipe event added to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, said last week.

news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/19/freestyle-ski-champ-dies-week-after-injury/?hpt=us_c2

[sadie]

Sarah Burke.....RIP

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Only the good die young.

[Deleted]

She died doing what she loved.......most of us won't get that chance