Sarah Burke in coma after superpipe accident in Park City
The Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke is in a coma after sustaining critical injuries during a training session on the superpipe in Park City, Utah, on Tuesday, January 10.
The CEO of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association Peter Judge confirmed that the 29-year-old pipe sensation was indeed in a critical condition and nothing could be said about her recovery until further reports, which were expected to come by early Wednesday.
Talking about the details of the crash that sent Burke into a coma, Judge said, “What I've heard, relatively directly, is that she landed a trick down in the bottom end of the pipe, and kind of bounced, from her feet to her head. It wasn't anything that
looked like a catastrophic fall, so I'm a bit mystified.”
Judge further added that it is quite difficult to say deduce anything clearly from the medical report. While they clearly show that the signs are “dramatic and catastrophic,” it is quite tough to accurately gauge just what these signs point towards as similar
signs and symptoms may be caused by a number of things.
According to the communication manager at Park City Mountain Resort, Andy Miller, Burke crashed while training in the Eagle Superpipe. It was the same pipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce had been critically injured, suffering traumatic brain injuries, during
a training run on December 31, 2009.
Miller further said that after Burke had been given immediate treatment by the ski patrol after she crashed, before she was carried off to the base patrol and eventually air-lifted to the University Hospital in Salt Lake City.
The Hospital’s spokeswoman has confirmed that the Canadian freeskier had been admitted and undergoing evaluation.
Burke is renowned for her pipe prowess and has been asserting her dominance in the pipe competitions for quite some time now. With an ESPY award for best female action sports athlete to her name, along with the boasting rights for being the first female
skier to pull off a 1080 in a competition, she is recognised as a pioneer in women’s freeskiing since 2000.
She was scheduled to defend her Winter X Games Ski Superpipe title in Aspen in the last week of this month.
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