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Sarah Burke Winter X Games World Championship

January 29, 2012 by · Comments Off on Sarah Burke Winter X Games World Championship 

Sarah Burke Winter X Games World Championship, In an emotional final capping off three weeks of sorrow surrounding the death of of women’s freeski pioneer Sarah Burke, Canadian Roz Groenewoud won the gold medal in women’s superpipe at the Winter X Games Saturday.
Roz Groenewoud of Canada soars above the pipe as she warms up for the women’s ski superpipe finals during Winter X Games at Buttermilk Mountain on Saturday in Aspen, Colo.

Adorned with “Celebrate Sarah” stickers on her helmet, Groenewoud rallied to beat Maddie Bowman with a second-run score of a 93.66 – the highest score in the event’s history.

Groenewoud, a close friend and Canadian teammate of Burke, took the lead from Bowman in her second run by executing a large 14-foot high straight air, a right rotating 900 (2½ rotations), a left rotating 540 into a left rotating 720 before ending with a switch right rotating 540.

“We really were trying to push each other with bigger and bigger tricks and try to be the best skiers we can be,” Groenewoudd said.

Burke, a six-time X Games champion, died Jan. 19, nine days after a fall during training. She suffered damage to her brain due to a lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest. She was 29.

On Saturday, throngs of freeski fans crowded the base of the superpipe at Buttermilk mountain where signs, placards and armbands dedicated to Burke showed an overwhelming expression of solidarity for the late skier’s legend.

“I think it’s nice that everyone came together after (Sarah’s death) and that there’s so much support for her and for women’s superpipe right now,” said Jessie Wurm, 24, of Whitefish, Mont. “That’s why, especially, we came out this morning.”

Paige Cummings from Edwards, Colo., says her daughter, Jessica, is also a competitive freeskier and has known Burke for years.

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