Sarah Jean Burke (September 3, 1982 – January 19, 2012) was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a four-time Winter X Games gold medalist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005.
She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in Utah. …
Burke’s memory lived on in Sochi with a tributes from volunteers who skied in a heart shape before the halfpipe finals.
“I’m really proud of how we did,” said UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos Field. “We saw a lot of fight and grit in them tonight.”
Courtney won the all-around with a score of 39.225 and tied with Peszek for the vault crown. Peszek placed first on every event in which she participated (vault, bars and beam), and Sawa won floor with UCLA’s first perfect 10 on floor in nine years. …
2012 Olympic team alternate Chris Brooks of Houston/Team Hilton HHonors (Cypress), earned a two-day total of 174.850 in the all-around at the 2014 Winter Cup Challenge today inside the Riviera Hotel & Casino’s Royale Pavilion in Las Vegas to win the all-around competition. …
… On a critical note, numerous complaints were voiced throughout the evening about how hard it was to keep track of the scoring. First of all, many found it difficult to read the scores on the tiny scoreboard. More troublesome was the lack of ability to easily track the scoring on smartphones, tablets and laptops. Instead of displaying the evening’s individual scores, fans were given combined scores for the meet. It was necessary to either be a math whiz with a photographic memory, or to toggle back and forth on different screens to calculate the Day 2 scores. …
We were definitely not in routine shape yet so we went out there to have fun and it was definitely the funnest meet I’ve competed in, probably in my whole life. The routines were easier so it wasn’t as stressful and it was awesome to go out there and have fun. And being in Hawaii, it was beautiful so that was cool too. We got to travel with our parents and we were there for a week so we got to go to the beach and go to Pearl Harbor and the North Shore.
At that meet, you debuted the Tweddle-Ezhova (straddle back 1/2) while at Nationals you did the Tweddle-straddle back. Has that been the plan all along?
That’s what I’ve been working on at the gym and that’s what I’m hoping to have in my routine at camp. When I first learned it, I was working the straddle back 1/2 but as meet season came along, it wasn’t ready yet so I just went back to the straddle back. We were planning on working the straddle 1/2 back after Worlds because it’s bonus if you do the 1/2 but it’s not if you do the straddle back.
What are your short and long term goals? Are you thinking about Rio 2016?
My goals for this year are to make the Italy meet and then the Pacific Rim and my goal is to make it to Worlds this year. Long term – I’m just taking it one year at a time and then I’ll decide what to do once it comes around.
It’s my senior year this year. I’m going to defer college to try for Worlds this year and then I’ll decide what to do next year. 2016, yeah, I’m not sure yet.
You’ve committed to the University of Oklahoma for NCAA gymnastics. How did you pick it?
I didn’t want to go too far from home. I wanted it to be driving distance so I visited a few schools that were close. I really like KJ and Lou. They were really nice and they made me feel like they really wanted to me to be on their team. I really liked the atmosphere and, from the people who I know that go there, I heard nothing but good things about it so I’m really excited to go.
