She’s
gaining speed as she approaches the jump. Her legs bend and she twists her body beforeher skis leave the
snow. Her skis are crossed as she spins her body 60 feet in the air. She comes out of her third spin just in
time to land in a cloud of snow and the crowd immediately erupts in deafening applause.
It’s 2007 at the World Skiing Invitational in Canada and Sarah Burke has become the first woman to land a
1,080-degree spin in competition. “It was spur-of-the-moment and I thought, ‘Why don’t I give it a try?’”
says Burke. “I was just feeling it and I went for it after two tries and I landed it. Everyone was so
shocked.”
By the time she was 15 years old, Burke, who grew up in Midland, Ont., was competing and travelling all over
North America with the Ontario Ski Team. Since then she has travelled to many countries and is now living in
Whistler, B.C. “I’ve been to some of the most exciting places like Morocco and New Zealand — which are
gorgeous, but Japan has the best snow,” she says. “However, Whistler is my favourite; I never want to go
anywhere else. They have challenging mountains and the town is great too. I feel like I grew up here in a
way. I love it here.”
Whistler is where Burke really honed her talent and drive for skiing, which has since earned her the
reputation as one of the best skiers in the world. Now 28 years old, she has transformed into a pioneer of
women’s freestyle skiing and forged women’s role in the sport after upstaging the boys during her 12 years of
competitive skiing.
For years, Burke dominated the competitive skiing realm by winning every major competition in both superpipe
and slopestyle, snowballing her to the top as the most recognized woman in her sport. She took home gold in
the U.S. Freeskiing Open in the halfpipe as well as ESPN’S award for female skier of the year in 2001 and won
the coveted Federation Internationale de Ski World Freestyle Ski in 2003.
In 2005, she tore her MCL, the major stabilizing ligament on the inner part of the knee. It would have been a
setback for most athletes — but not Burke.
