Sarah Burke left lasting legacy on Olympics before death

• Before her death in 2012%2C Burke was a driving force behind women%27s skiing halfpipe joining Olympics
• Burke was just 29 years old when she died after a practice run accident in Utah

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia -- If Sarah Burke were here, she and Roz Groenewoud would stand at the top of the Olympic halfpipe and say 1-2, 1-2.

The Canadian teammates always supported each other in that way, even if each saw herself on top.

A pioneer in her sport, the Canadian was a driving force behind getting the sport into the Olympics. It has been two years since her death after a training crash, and yet her dream will live on as halfpipe makes its debut for female skiers Thursday.

"My dream was always to win the Olympics," Burke said in the documentary, Winter Sessions: Rory Bushfield and Sarah Burke.

Parts of the film produced by The Ski Channel were shot six months before her death in January 2012 and released after it. In sometimes haunting interviews, Burke discusses her pioneering efforts in the sport, the toll on her body and the dreams it sparked for her.

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do in the Olympics," she says in the film, "but that's what I wanted to do."

Groenewoud will try to do that in honor of Burke now as the freeskiing community keeps alive the memory of one of its best.

"She was extremely competitive, extremely driven, but that never colored her ability to be compassionate and generous with compliments and stuff like that," Groenewoud says. "She was amazing at being able to differentiate those parts that you don't have to be an asshole to be a strong athlete."

When she died Jan. 19, 2012, the loss rippled beyond the skiing community.

To be sure, it was the tragedy of it. Burke was 29, an athlete at the top of her sport with six X Games medals. With an infectious smile, caring personality and magnetism, Burke made an impression on anyone she met.

"She was the bright smiling face at the bottom of the course that brought everybody's spirits up," legendary freeskier Simon Dumont said. "Every time we ski, if there's a thought of Sarah, it makes you feel a little bit better, so she's always with us."

Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, and parents, Jan Phelan and Gord Burke, have made the trip to Sochi, seeing through a dream she had pursued. It will be difficult, but, with most things tied to Burke since her death, it will be a celebration.

Overcoming fear

Burke was always fearless, her mother says. At 2 years old, she took a tumble down the 16 stairs in their home. Phelan expected to find her daughter crying.

"And she picked herself up, and she declared, 'I meant to do that,'" Phelan says. "She was pretty much heavy duty like that from the start."

To do what Burke did — usher freeskiing from its infancy to a sport rich with opportunities for women — she would need to be. Although Burke started as a moguls skier, she quickly fell in love with the halfpipe.

With the sport still in its early days, that meant at many contests she would have to push to be included and compete among the boys. Early in her career, that became routine when she wasn't turned away from contests.

It also revealed her toughness. Her father remembers a U.S. Open when she returned to the lodge after a training session and burst into tears. She had badly broken her thumb, but she held it together until she got down the mountain.

"She refused to let anybody see her cry no matter how busted up she was," Gord Burke said. "I think the guys admired her for that. She was tough."

In Winter Sessions, Burke details the myriad injuries she suffered in the sport. Competing in slopestyle, which was not her signature event but one that she lobbied to get into the X Games, she broke her back.

"I think you should scare yourself every day," she says in the film. "I'm a firm believer in getting your heart going and trying something different or new and overcoming it."

As she competed against the guys, Burke pushed to develop the sport for women, encouraging others to compete.

American freeskier Angeli VanLaanen was one of those girls when she met Burke at a camp when she was 16. "That's why I started doing halfpipe," said VanLaanen, 28.

As more women began competing, Burke pushed for more inclusion. Thanks in part to her lobbying, the X Games added freeskiing halfpipe and slopestyle for women. It also became one of the first events to offer equal prize money for both genders.

"Through Sarah pushing the conversation, it just kind of helped us get to that point a little quicker," said Tim Reed, ESPN's senior director, content strategy and sports and competition of the X Games.

The same goes for the Olympics. After lobbying from Burke and others, the IOC added freeskiing halfpipe in April 2011. Burke planned to compete here when she would have been 31.

"Without that, we wouldn't be in the Olympics and we wouldn't be where we are today," says Mike Riddle, a Canadian teammate of Burke's. "We owe a lot to her."

"I don't think she ever saw it as a defining moment for the sport," says Michael Spencer, her agent. "It was just another notch, and then she was going to go on to something else. This was going to be her one chance."

Outpouring of grief

Burke was training in Park City, Utah, when she crashed on a routine trick Jan. 10, 2012. The whiplash severed the vertebral artery, which supplied blood to her brain. She went into cardiac arrest in the pipe and, despite surgery to repair the artery, she remained in a coma until her death nine days later.

The response around the world was immediate and profound. Spencer helped establish a fund to cover her medical expenses since her insurance with the Canadian national team did not cover her while she was training in the USA with a sponsor.

In days, enough money had been raised to cover those expenses and start a foundation in her name. Of the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised, only one donation was in the neighborhood of $4,000, according to Spencer.

"I can't tell you how many $10 donations there were," he says.

If people couldn't donate, they wrote. Phelan received a note from a Polish woman named Magdalena. After Burke's death, the woman went skiing, saw the Celebrate Sarah stickers and was moved to write her.

"I always thought she was mine and was my little girl. That so isn't true," Phelan wrote. "She somewhere along the move into being someone very special and very important to the entire world."

Bushfield, whom Burke married in 2010, received condolences from the prime minister of Canada. The rapper Lil' Wayne created a T-shirt with proceeds going to the foundation.

"I was aware of how much reach she had more than she was, but I wasn't aware by any means as to how far it went, at all. I'm still amazed by it," he says. "People were struck by Sarah. She had that aura about her."

For Burke's teammates, the loss was especially acute. Groenewoud, 24, still chokes up when talking about Burke, whom she met when she was 13.

Like the rest of the team that competed with Burke, Groenewoud has a piece of her jewelry, a purple, studded leather bracelet. Canadian halfpipe coach Trennon Paynter, who was a close friend of Burke's, came up with the idea.

While Olympic rules prevent Groenewoud from wearing anything on the outside of her uniform, she said she might wear it when she competes. Riddle has a silver necklace with the charm of a single ski that he takes to every competition.

"She kind of had that ability (to make others smile) with everybody," Riddle says, "and she always, I think, brought the best out of other people."

Olympic debut Thursday

Shortly after her death, her family established The Sarah Burke Foundation. In May, it gave out its first scholarships, three of $7,500 apiece for promising young athletes who have demonstrated a commitment to their communities.

The foundation also donated $15,000 to St. Jude's Hospital, a place close to Burke's heart. Many times she competed in a triathlon fundraiser for the hospital in the spring. One year, she did a leg of it while recovering from a broken back.

Although nothing can erase the loss brought by her death, her friends and family say the foundation has given them something positive to remember her by.

"It's cool to be able to just carry on the idea of Sarah," Bushfield says. "As she lived her life, she always helped the people that needed it, and so selfless. It's cool to be doing the same sort of things she taught us to do."

There have been other remembrances, although IOC rules prohibit the armbands and stickers bearing her name to be worn here.

Each year on the anniversary of her death, athletes have tweeted their memories with the hashtag #celebratesarah. Activyst is selling limited edition T-shirts bearing one of Burke's favorite sayings, "Dream without fear." Part of the proceeds will go to the foundation.

Last year, Burke was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame as a builder. This month, the Canada Post created a stamp in her honor.

In ways big and small, Burke's memory is kept alive. And that won't change, even without a sticker or armband as the event she so cherished and fought for finally makes its Olympic debut.

"I think she'd be smiling, for sure," Bushfield says. "Just stoked to see all her friends and just happy that she was able to give what she gave and to give those guys that opportunity. You can give a lot of things, but that one's pretty incredible."