LIVIGNO, Italy — Maybe the most precious pin at the Milan Cortina Games celebrates an athlete who helped lead an entire sport into the Olympics, but never got to compete herself.
Canada’s late, great freeskier Sarah Burke was a pioneer in the women’s halfpipe. She encouraged girls and young women to jump into what was, decades ago, almost exclusively a men’s sport. Later, her lobbying was key to getting the event onto the Olympic program.
But she died at age 29 in a training accident in 2012, two years before the skiers debuted in the halfpipe at the Sochi Olympics.
To honor Burke’s memory, Canada coach Trennon Paynter had 200 pins made that spell out “Sarah” in red script — matching the look of the stickers skiers put on their helmets in Russia.
“She got women into the sport, period,” Paynter said Friday. “And then she was a huge driver of getting the sport into the Games by actively attending events when a lot of people didn’t know that was the pathway into the Olympics.”
To this day, Paynter said, some still ski with those “Sarah” stickers on their helmets. But because of the unforgiving Olympic rules that forbid those sorts of displays , Paynter came up with a different way to spread the message.
He was given the floor before the first halfpipe practice earlier this week and used the time to speak about Burke’s impact. He told the athletes about the pins. Word spread quickly across the snowpark. He was out within hours.
“Everyone in this sport, not only this sport but action sport in general, is still really paying tribute to Sarah and her legacy,” said the coach, who plans on having a new batch made and selling them to benefit Burke’s charitable foundation.
On Sunday — a day later than originally scheduled because of a storm — Eileen Gu is scheduled to drop into the halfpipe trying to win her second straight gold medal in the event. Gu’s birthday: Sept. 3, the same as Burke’s.
Arguably the most memorable night in this sport’s Olympic history was its first night — in the mountains of Russia where Burke’s parents and husband attended the women’s contest and watched the slip crew descend the halfpipe for the final time that night in the shape of a heart.
Paynter himself spread some of Burke’s ashes above the halfpipe at the Rosa Khutor extreme park.
French skier Marie Martinod won the silver medal that night. She had retired and had a daughter when, one day, Burke knocked on her door and told her she needed to come back because she wanted the best women out there for the Olympic debut.
Martinod painted snowflakes on her fingernails that night to match the tattoo Burke had on her foot.
“I think I didn’t say goodbye to Sarah yet and I still have to do it, and now I feel I’m able to do it because I did what she asked me to do,” Martinod said that evening.
Twelve years later, the number of skiers who knew Burke had dwindled to a precious few. Virtually everyone, though, knows her legacy.
American Nick Goepper wore the pin — even pointing at it while he waited for his score in the holding area — during Friday’s qualifying round.
“She was a commanding personality and force to legitimize halfpipe skiing for both men and women,” Goepper said. “She gave a lot of inspiration for a lot of young girls.”
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