īurke was a known promoter of the superpipe skiing event, working to have it added to the Olympic program. She regularly participated in skiing films, including Propaganda, in which she showcased her skills by sliding rainbow rails, spinning a 540 in the pipe and throwing back-flips. She won ESPN's 2001 Award for female skier of the year and was voted 2007's Best Female Action Sports Athlete at the ESPY awards. She was the first woman ever to land a jump with 1080-degree rotation in competition. Burke is also a four-time Winter X Games gold medallist in freestyle skiing. When half-pipe made its debut at the 2005 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships, she emerged as the first world champion. In 2005, ESPN added women's freeskiing to the X-Games. In 2004, Burke lobbied ESPN to include a division for women skiers at its Winter X Games. She and Leskinen were the only women who competed against the men. īurke won first place in the 2001 US Freeskiing Open in the half-pipe event and finished second in slopestyle. The pair were frequent competitors, and often against male skiers. She was considered a pioneer in the sport of superpipe skiing, along with American Kristi Leskinen. Skiing career Īs a teenage mogul skier, Burke would often sneak onto the Snowboard halfpipe at the end of the day. She and her sister, Anna Phelan, grew up in Midland and attended Midland Secondary School. Burke died following a training accident in Utah in 2012.īurke was born in Barrie, Ontario, to Jan Phelan and Gordon Burke, both artists. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was a five-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005.

Sarah Jean Burke (Septem– January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event.

Women professional racer death