Freestyle skier Sarah Burke passes away

Rating****

With every amazing accomplishment it would seem a tragedy follows. Accidents happen all the time, some of them threaten your sports, some your family, and the odd few threaten your life. In this case, all three were affected because of the death of the 29 year old Canadian freestyle skier. Sarah Burke died of major brain injuries when she crashed in at a training session in Utah.

Sarah was born and raised in Midland, Ontario. She started skiing when she was five years old and as she grew older and wanted to become a more competitive skier. She soon learned that she was not allowed to compete with boys. Believing that this was completely sexist, she addressed her opinion in multiple emails to the X Games organizers, pressuring them to allow girls to participate.

A new-be of her sport, Sarah was the first woman to land a 1080. In 2005, she won a gold in halfpipe and a silver in superpipe. She won the X Games gold in superpipe in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011. She was a favorite in the sport and will be for a long time.

Sarah was a strong supporter to the fight to have women’s ski halfpipe in the Olympics. Now in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, will be the first time women's ski halfpipe will be featured. But of course, she will not be attending due to her passing. Many teammates, coaches, and even judges who have evaluated her in the passed voice her absence with great sorrow, but they all agree she would have been placed on the pandemonium.

At 14, Burke met her future husband, extreme skier Rory Bushfield. Sarah talks about the importance of being on the hill in a video clip from Winter. “It’s what our lives are….it’s where we met, it’s where we play, we live.”
Rory adds: “And hopefully where we die.”

I would recommend this article to anyone. It a real life story, it has a lot of emotion behind it, and it really makes you aware of how dangerous some of the things the athletes do are. It already has a lot of media attention, but hearing about it, and reading about it are two different things. Words have the greatest impact on people, and you can't change the words that have been said, you just have to accept them and look forward, just like everyone in Sarah Burke's life will sooner or later, have to do.

REFERENCES
http://explore-mag.com/2522/adventure/freestyle-skier-sarah-burke-passes-away ; Article Written By Emma Woolley ;
This article was originally published on January 19, 2012