CALGARY – Thursday’s death of world-class skier Sarah Burke hit close to home for many of Calgary’s winter sports athletes who face similar dangers in training and competition.
“It is going to have an effect on everybody,” said national freestyle skier Warren Shouldice, who knew Burke. “Athletes do think ‘what if?’ and it is dangerous.
“Again, this is what I love to do and she was doing what she loved to do.”
He compared the tragic accident to a death in the family.
“To have that happen to someone who’s the same age as me, doing the same sport as me, is shocking. It’s just a terrible loss,” he said.
Despite freestyle skiing’s inherent risks, Shouldice stressed the sport is safe.
“It’s just a freak and terrible accident,” he said.
Burke, 29, from Squamish, B.C., suffered a serious head injury and went into cardiac arrest in a crash at the bottom of a superpipe training run at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah on Jan. 10.
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She survived nine days in a Salt Lake City hospital before succumbing to her injuries.
Burke’s death shocked athletes of all stripes on Thursday.
Recently retired Calgary speedskater Katrina Groves didn’t know Burke, but said she had been following the developments of the superpipe specialist closely since her accident last week.
“It takes your breath away,” said Groves. “You just hope that someone can survive a crash like that. It’s just the most tragic thing you can imagine.
“It’s so unexpected and so sad. And as an athlete, it’s hard to understand that that could happen on a training run. It’s just a senseless tragedy.”
Burke won four gold medals in her sport at the Winter X Games and was the first woman to complete a 1080spin, three full rotations, in a competition.
Groves said she respects Burke’s accomplishments behind the scenes as well in fighting for equal prize money for women in action sports and in pushing to have halfpipe skiing included in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
“She was such a pioneer in her sport and she advocated so strongly on her sport’s behalf to get it included in the Olympics. It’s just so inspiring what she did,” said Groves. “And this is just so sad.”
Long track speedskating is considered much less risky than freestyle skiing, but Groves suffered a concussion late in her career when she fell in November 2010.
She said elite-level athletes don’t let injuries affect their willingness to compete and she suspects even Burke’s death won’t deter others from continuing to compete at the highest level.
“You don’t think, ‘I’m willing to give my life for this sport,’ that just never crosses your mind and I’m sure never crossed her mind, either,” said Groves. “You read the reports about the injuries she’s had and she said, ‘I would do it all again.’ It’s hard for some people to understand that, because they are scared of that risk themselves, but it’s just such a beautiful thing to be able to follow your dream in sport and in life. That she was able to do that is a gift.”
Burke’s death rippled through all parts of Calgary’s sports community. Canada Olympic Park employee Terry Greenway recalled meeting the young skier at a world cup event at COP several years ago.
“We just got talking and hit it off. She was very polite, very easygoing,” Greenway said.
“I’m a talker, so I like to introduce myself. That’s how I noticed her right away because she’s the same type as me.”
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