Sarah Burke
Burke in 2010
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| Birth name | Sarah Jean Burke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
September 3, 1982 Barrie, Ontario, Canada |
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| Died | January 19, 2012 (aged 29) Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. |
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| Spouse(s) | Rory Bushfield (2010-2012; her death) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | sarahburke |
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| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |
 Canada
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Medal record
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Sarah Jean Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a four-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in Utah.
Burke was born in Barrie, Ontario, to Jan Phelan and Gordon Burke, both artists. She and her sister, Anna Phelan, grew up in Midland and attended Midland Secondary School.
As a teenage mogul skier, Burke would often sneak onto the Snowboard halfpipe at the end of the day. She was considered a pioneer in the sport of superpipe skiing, along with American Kristi Leskinen. The pair were frequent competitors, and often against male skiers.
Burke won first place in the 2001 US Freeskiing Open in the half-pipe event and finished second in slopestyle. She and Leskinen were the only women who competed against the men. In 2004, Burke lobbied ESPN to include a division for women skiers at its Winter X Games. In 2005, ESPN added women's freeskiing to the X-Games.
When half-pipe made its debut at the 2005 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, she emerged as the first world champion. Burke is also a four-time Winter X Games gold medallist in freestyle skiing. She was the first woman ever to land a jump with 1080-degree rotation in competition.
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Wikipedia