Skiing

Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke suffered a terrible fall in a practice run on the superpipe in Park City, Utah, leaving her in a coma. 

Skiing is often overlooked as a dangerous sport, but Burke's unfortunate injury brings to light how risky and unsafe the sport can be. 

The superpipe, which is a half-pipe filled with snow, sees those who compete in it reach heights near 20 feet in the air. Competitors are racing with top speed and doing high-difficulty tricks in mid-air. 

When a crash occurs, everyone is very uneasy because of the unknown. Skiers and snowboarders are falling from extreme heights, and landing wrong could be devastating to their health. 

Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge told The Vancouver Sun that Burke's fall wasn't overly frightening for on-lookers, but sadly it resulted in a devastating injury. 

Apparently she landed on her feet at the bottom of the pipe and then kind of bounced on to her head. It didn’t look like it was a real stunner of a fall, but obviously it was one of those ones where she hit just right and it was more pointed than it appeared. 
From there, she was flown to a hospital in Salt Lake City. 

The extent of Burke's injury is not yet known, and we wish her well in her recovery. 

Burke was an Olympic hopeful who was expected to compete for gold. She's a pioneer in women's skiing who not only helped women's ski pipe get to the X Games, but also the Olympics in 2014.

It isn't just superpipe that makes skiing so dangerous, as the downhill events are arguably much worse. 

Competitors are flying down intense slopes, and at a moment's notice, they could be on the ground unconscious after a nasty fall. It happens far too often and is the reason some of the sport's best haven't won in recent years. 

Injuries are a part of every sport, and athlete safety is being focused on much more these days. 

Since it's not as popular as other sports, people fail to realize how dangerous any type of ski competition can be. 

The snow may be fun to play with, but when crashing into it with intense speeds and high velocity, it can do a great deal of damage.

Our thoughts are with Burke, and we hope she can compete again someday. 

Five-time X-Games medalist Sarah Burke is in critical condition and a coma after a fall at a sponsor's event in Park City, Utah.

The Canadian freestyle skier is largely considered a medal contender at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

According to Canada.com's report of the incident, she was airlifted to a hospital in Salt Lake City:

Early reports indicated that Burke had to be resuscitated on the hill before being flown to hospital. The rest of the Canadian team is currently training at Whistler.

Canadian Freestyle Ski Association CEO Peter Judge said he and his organization were in a state of shock when they got the news.

Judge wasn’t fully aware of the details but said he thought she’d done a trick and landed at the bottom of the pipe. She apparently bounced sideways onto her head.

“Apparently it didn’t look like it was that bad of a fall but she must have hit right in the worst place,” Judge said.

Burke won gold at the Winter X-Games from 2007-2009 and again in 2011. 

She is married to a fellow Canadian freestyle skier, Rory Bushfield, who was on his way to Salt Lake City late Tuesday night after struggling to find a flight.

She finished fourth at the 2011 World Championships at Park City and is considered a pioneer in the sport.

Judge talked of her competitive drive saying, "She never rested on her laurels. She was always willing to take the competition and make it about what she could do and not about beating other people."

The 2014 Games only added ski half-pipe in April of 2011, with Burke playing an in "instrumental" role its inclusion.

Late Tuesday night, it was reported that Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke was in a coma after a crash while training. There were not a lot of details about the crash or her prognosis at the time, but there are tiny details that are starting to come out. 

UPDATE: Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9:10 a.m. EDT

According to FoxSports.com, Burke underwent surgery on Wednesday. The details of the operation were not released, and she is still comatose while her prognosis is still unknown.  

In a statement released by Burke's publicist, a doctor at University of Utah hospital says Burke "sustained serious injuries and remains intubated and sedated in critical condition."

There is currently no information about what the next step is for the doctors. If anything changes, we will have an update on Burke's condition and prognosis. 

According to the Associated Press, Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian freestyle team, just confirmed that Burke was in a coma, but he doesn't know what that means for her recovery. 

The report also says that Burke's family was able to find a flight from their home in Canada to Salt Lake City, where she was training. 

In a separate report from Andrea Woo and Gary Kingston of the Vancouver Sun, Judge said that the severity of her injuries is not known yet. 

“The thing with head injuries, and even comas, is that they can be very deceiving,” Judge said. “A coma could be something that’s quite mild, and you come out of in a certain period of time, or it can be significant. At this point, it’s pretty speculative to try and pin exactly what it is, or what the implications of it are.”

Despite being just 29 years old, Burke is a legend in the sport. She has fought long and hard to get it respect from the Olympic committee, and eventually succeeded. 

We will have all the latest news and information on Burke's condition and prognosis as it becomes available. 

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Sarah Burke, the top women's freestyle skier in the world, is reportedly in a coma after being seriously injured while training on Tuesday in Park City, Utah.

According to the Toronto Star, Burke was helicoptered to a hospital in Salt Lake City after suffering a head injury while preparing for the 2012 X Games on the superpipe of Park City Mountain Resort.

Burke reportedly "whiplashed" onto her side after landing a trick on the bottom of the superpipe.

Said Peter Judge, CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, via the Star:

“We’re a bit shell-shocked right now. It’s tough to read. The signs are dramatic and catastrophic, but it’s hard to gauge how dramatic and catastrophic. The same treatment and symptoms can be on a broad scale.”

The 29-year-old is a four-time X Games champion and has won six gold medals overall during her career.

According to Andy Miller, the resort's communications manager, the halfpipe was the same one that snowboarder Kevin Peirce was critically injured on Dec. 31, 2009. Pearce suffered brain injuries but has since recovered and returned to snowboarding last month.

Burke is considered a pioneer of her sport, competing against men when there were no women's events. Her aggressive style has made her a star and garnered her widespread respect throughout the world. She was scheduled to defend her gold medal at the Winter X Games later this month in Aspen.

Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, asked via Twitter if there was anyone with a private jet who could fly he and Burke's mother from Vancouver to Salt Lake City.

Lindsey Vonn is the most recognizable female skier in this country. She is an Olympic gold medalist and one of the most dominant athletes in her sport, but all of that success on the slopes is about to come crashing down because of problems in her personal life. 

According to a report from the Associated Press, Vonn and her husband, Thomas, have started divorce proceedings after four years of marriage. 

Now, this would normally be no big deal because we see marriages crumble all the time and more often than not athletes are able to compartmentalize things that no one else can to focus on their craft. 

However, Thomas played an integral part in Lindsey's success on and off the slopes. He did everything he could to help keep her mind on her craft and made sure she had nothing to worry about when she prepared to race.

From the AP report:

Her shining moment in Vancouver was years in the making, beginning when her father, Alan Kildow, introduced her to skiing. He even moved the family to Colorado to foster that passion for the slopes.

But she had a falling out with her dad a few years ago. By all accounts, the feud began before the 2006 Turin Olympics, when she was known as Lindsey Kildow.

Part of the escalating tension had to do with her relationship with Thomas Vonn, a former U.S. Olympic skier who is nearly nine years older.

Over the years, Thomas Vonn became a rock in her life as he helped coordinate interviews, provided tips on the course and made sure all the logistics were taken care, freeing Lindsey Vonn to focus on skiing.

Losing that kind of stabilizing force can have a devastating effect on anyone's career, much less an athlete who must maintain concentration throughout a run or risk serious physical injury.

It's impossible to root against Vonn because she makes casual fans tune into a sport they would otherwise have no interest in. However, if her husband did as much for her career as the report makes it sound, all of her hard work and dedication are going to come crashing down on her. 

It is sad to say, but the end of Vonn's marriage also signals the end of her career as a dominant skier. 

Parker McDonald is officially the coolest 15-year-old on the planet.

The sophomore at the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy in Colorado didn’t have a date for last Friday’s homecoming dance.

On Thursday, with time ticking away, Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn made an appearance at his school. Vonn is a Vail native and decided to grab some lunch with some of the kids.

That’s when McDonald made his move. Here is Vonn’s account of what followed:  

Yesterday I visited the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy and while I was eating lunch with all the students a 15 year old boy named Parker asked me if I would be his date for their homecoming dance which is tonight. When Parker asked me he was cute, nervous and very polite so of course I said YES!

All through school growing up I never got the chance to go to a school dance so I'm excited for tonight!

And just like that McDonald was the coolest kid in school, in Colorado and in the country. He’s an inspiration for guys that can’t get dates all over the country.

Sure, Vonn may be married and is 15 years older, but how many people can say they got to slow dance with an Olympic gold medal winning athlete that is arguably one of the all-time greats?

It’s not like she’s unattractive, either. Vonn has been a swimsuit model and made Maxim's Hot 100 list. It makes you wonder…why didn’t she ever get a date in high school? Maybe she was the class nerd…or maybe she was too busy on the slopes.

Regardless, this is a story McDonald can tell his grandkids. It’s a story he can recreate at his wedding and it’s certainly a great icebreaker story to tell a girl.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, McDonald is the talk of the town and hopefully he had the greatest Friday night ever.

Let’s just hope he can dance. 

If you don’t know who Lindsey Vonn is yet, give it time because she is making quite the name for herself.

With Vonn attending a function at a Colorado school, a young student named Parker McDonald mustered up enough courage to ask the skiing phenom to his dance on Saturday night.

While most people would be nervous to talk to a celebrity, McDonald had the courage to ask Vonn to attend the dance with him and to his surprise, she accepted.

Vonn said on her facebook page about being asked to the dance:

Yesterday I visited the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy and while I was eating lunch with all the students a 16 year old boy named Parker asked me if I would be his date for their homecoming dance, which is tonight. When Parker asked me he was cute, nervous and very polite so of course I said YES! :) All through school growing up I never got the chance to go to a school dance so I'm excited for tonight!

This story shows that while this world can be the absolute worst at times, there are still traces of dignity and class in people.

This kid just had his life made amazing by the kindness of Vonn, and if you think he won’t be the most popular kid at the dance you are sadly mistaken.

Maybe after the dance, Vonn can drive McDonald and his friends home and hang out with them for awhile, or is that too much to ask?

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Lindsey Vonn took the World Cup giant slalom and put herself in elite company, winning the elusive career grand slam.

Only four female skiers had ever won a race in all five disciplines prior to Vonn's incredible run, but a blistering two-minute, 24.43 pace proved to be impossible to compete with for her fellow competitors.

While Vonn is no stranger to success by any means, it's hard to believe anyone saw this coming. A discipline sweep at giant slalom wasn't impossible coming into this race, but this resounding victory has taken everyone by surprise—even Vonn.

Vonn said, "A win in GS has always been so far out of reach for me. Last season, after finishing third in Spindleruv Mlyn, I knew that maybe one day I could win. But I definitely did not plan to do it here."

Though unforeseen, a victory is a victory. Vonn notched her 42nd World Cup win and now only trails three female skiers in total races.

To say this is a big win is the understatement of the century. No American female skier has the trophy case Vonn has and to win in this fashion solidifies her as one of the best female skiers to ever put on skis.

She was able to put her fears and uncertainty behind her coming into this race, and that made all the difference. By ditching her reservations, Vonn moved into skiing royalty, and it's clear her accolades are far from over.

U.S. Olympians Lindsey Jacobellis, Andrew Weibrecht and Donna Weinbrecht and two-time X-Game champion Jen Hudak were in New York City on Tuesday as the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association announced a new partnership with luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.

Surrounded by gems and precious metals at Tiffany's flagship store on Fifth Avenue, the athletes helped unveil the new 2011-12 Gold Pass, an all-access token offering donors unlimited skiing or snowboarding at resorts across the USA.

The prestigious Gold Pass—only 400 are produced annually—is the USSA's largest annual fundraising program and requires a minimum annual contribution of $10,000.

These funds are crucial to athlete development and assist in offsetting the cost of elite-level training, education, travel and sport science support, since the association receives no government support.

"I love the look of the new Gold Pass," said Jacobellis, an Olympic silver medalist in 2006. "We're so happy to have the support from donors that the Gold Pass program provides and now it's a bonus that it comes in a little blue box."

In addition to producing the USSA Gold Pass, Tiffany & Co. will continue its partnership through other fundraising initiatives with the USSA.

They will also sell collection pieces including glassware, cufflinks, bracelets and tie clips later in the year, although the first prototypes were on display at the Breakfast at Tiffany's launch.

"The USSA and Tiffany & Co. stand for similar expectations in excellence," said USSA's chief revenue and marketing officer, Andrew Judelson. "You know the quality you're going to get when you open a Tiffany blue box and you can look for that same level of expectation from our athletes. Taking the physical product and collaborating with the best in the business to produce the Gold Pass boosts the overall prestige of the program."

The USSA is the national governing body of Olympic skiing and snowboarding and the parent of the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing.

From grassroots programs to governance of sport, management of rules, competitions and athletic rankings, the USSA oversees athletic pipelines for development in the sports.

With a vision to make the USA the best in the world in Olympic skiing and snowboarding, the USSA provides leadership and direction for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders who share an Olympic dream while maintaining a strong adherence to core values.

"It is with great excitement that Tiffany & Co. partners with such an outstanding organization as USSA," said Thomas O’Rourke, vice president of business sales for Tiffany & Co.

"USSA fields the best and most dedicated representatives in their respective sports to create Olympic teams that are founded on strong personal values, and we are honored to help support their vision by instilling Tiffany’s own values of craftsmanship and quality in the creation of the USSA 2011-12 Gold Pass."

For more information on donating to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, including specifics of the Gold Pass, visit the foundation's website here.