Freestyle Skier Burke Comatose After Training Crash...

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From CTV News:

CTVNews.ca Staff

Date: Wed. Jan. 11 2012 7:45 AM ET

Canadian freestyle skiing star Sarah Burke is comatose in a Utah hospital today, after crashing during training for the upcoming Winter X Games.

Burke was seriously injured while skiing the superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort on Tuesday.

After crashing, Burke was first attended by the resort mountain patrol. She was then transferred to base patrol and airlifted to University Hospital in Salt Lake City, where Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said she was in a coma.

"We know that she had landed a trick in the pipe and had landed at the bottom of the pipe and kind of hit on her feet, so she landed, and then bounced onto her feet, head kind of thing," Judge told The Canadian Press. "Apparently from what we heard it didn't look like it was that kind of severe a fall, but obviously she must have just hit in the right way."

Burke is considered a pioneer in the sport of skiing superpipe -- essentially a snow-covered halfpipe designed for skis.

Besides the 29-year-old Ontario native's performance on skis, which garnered her four Winter X Games championships and ESPN's 2007 action sport's athlete of the year, Burke is also revered for her efforts to have get sport in the Olympics.

Thanks in part to her lobbying efforts, halfpipe skiing is set to debut at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

If she's in competition form, Burke is expected to rank among the medal contenders there.

"Hopefully we'll get through the other end of this and hopefully she'll still have the opportunity," Judge said.

The halfpipe where Burke was training Tuesday, was also the site of a December, 2009 training crash in which U.S. snowboarder Kevin Pearce struck his head on the lip of the pipe. The accident left him with critical brain injuries.

After a long recovery, he announced last summer that he would snowboard again, but not competitively.

Burke has her own experience with healing, after she broke a vertebrae in a bad landing back in 2009. Her form had returned to the point she was set to defend her title at the upcoming Winter X Games in Aspen.

With files from The Canadian Press

Link:
Freestyle skier Burke comatose after training crash | CTV News

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From CTV News:

Freestyle skier remains in coma after training crash

CTVNews.ca Staff

Date: Wed. Jan. 11 2012 9:19 PM ET

Canadian freestyle skiing star Sarah Burke remains comatose and in critical condition in a Utah hospital Wednesday after a serious training injury.

The 28-year-old from Squamish, B.C., was badly injured Tuesday on a skiing superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah, where she had been training for the upcoming Winter X Games.

She was airlifted to University Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she remains intubated and in an induced coma in the neuro critical care unit.

Chris Nelson, assistant vice-president for public affairs at the hospital, said Burke had surgery Wednesday afternoon. Details were not immediately available about the nature of the operation.

In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said halfpipe skiing has a great safety record and serious accidents like Burke's are rare.

Burke is considered a pioneer in the sport of skiing superpipe -- essentially a snow-covered halfpipe designed for skis.

"We're all very concerned about Sarah and her family," Judge said, noting that athlete safety is "paramount" during training and competition.

Judge said CFSA officials are not sure what went wrong during Burke's training run on Tuesday. The superpipe she was training on was safety-certified and she didn't appear to be practicing any "out of the norm" manoeuvres, he said.

On Tuesday, Judge said it appeared Burke "landed a trick" but may have bounced off her feet and hit her head.

Besides the Ontario native's performance on skis, which garnered her four Winter X Games championships and ESPN's 2007 action sport's athlete of the year, Burke is also revered for her efforts to get the sport in the Olympics.

Thanks in part to her lobbying efforts, halfpipe skiing is set to debut at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

"Sarah in many ways defines the sport," Judge said.

She was one of the first athletes to get involved in halfpipe skiing and has always been "a very eloquent spokesperson for the sport," he said.

"She was always concerned about making herself the best in the sport, not comparing herself to other people."

The halfpipe where Burke was training Tuesday was also the site of a December, 2009 training crash in which U.S. snowboarder Kevin Pearce struck his head on the lip of the pipe. The accident left him with critical brain injuries.

After a long recovery, he announced last summer that he would snowboard again, but not competitively.

Burke has her own experience with healing, after she broke a vertebrae in a bad landing back in 2009. Her form had returned to the point she was set to defend her title at the Winter X Games in Aspen later this month.

"Sarah is a pioneer in her sport of freestyle skiing and Canadians are proud of her and all she has accomplished, not only for her sport, but for representing Canada so well on the world stage," said Canadian Olympic Committee president, Marcel Aubut.

While asking for privacy, Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, and family are encouraging friends and fans to post messages of encouragement on Burke's Facebook page.

"Sarah is a very strong young woman and she will most certainly fight to recover," Bushfield said in a statement.

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Freestyle skier remains in coma after training crash | CTV News