Commentary: Remember Sarah Burke for what she was — a world-class athlete

Before last week, most casual sports fans hadn’t heard of Canadian skier Sarah Burke.

Now, following her tragic death, Burke will be remembered by many as another cautionary tale about the dangers of “extreme” sports. Since Burke died Thursday, the result of injuries sustained in a half-pipe crash nine days earlier, the debate has once again come up whether athletes in certain sports are pushing the envelope too far and taking too many risks.

And that is precisely the wrong way to go about remembering Burke.

Remember her as a world-class athlete, a pioneer in women’s sports who successfully lobbied to get her sport into the 2014 Olympics or as a woman who by all accounts was a loving friend, wife, daughter and sister. But please, please don’t turn her death into a referendum on every sport that involves an element of danger.

Don’t turn the death of a 29-year-old into a reason to never take another risk. Instead, let it be a reminder to embrace whatever passion enriches your life. And for a select few athletes who are wired differently than the rest of us, that means keep pushing the envelope.

“We wouldn’t be truly living if we weren’t doing this,” said Seattle’s Ingrid Backstrom, one of the world’s top free skiers and a friend of Burke’s and her husband Rory Bushfield.

“It’s something we need to do for them too — get back out there and do it, live life and honor these amazing people.”

From football to hockey to less mainstream sports like freestyle skiing and snowboarding, athletes have been risking serious injury, and in rare cases, death, for decades. Of course every measure should be taken to make these sports as safe as possible, but to simply declare a sport “too dangerous” is not the answer.

For someone who has never gone 90 miles per hour on skis, straight-lined a 50-degree peak in Alaska or stuck a 720 in a half-pipe, it may seem easy to declare such activities as too risky. But unless you’re the parent or guardian of a minor participating in these sports, that isn’t your choice to make. And while some may want to put blame on sponsors, filmmakers or others for putting pressure on athletes to take too big of risks, those who have walked that line say the real pressure comes from within.

“I would be hesitant to say there is pressure coming from outside the sport — the sponsors, the money, stuff like that — I just don’t think that’s the case,” former Olympic ski racer Scott Macartney said. “It’s more internally driven among athletes who try to be the best at what they do and are willing to take chances to push their sport and push what is possible for the human body.”

Macartney, a Redmond native who retired from ski racing two years ago, never crossed paths with Burke, but her death still hits close to home. Four years earlier, he suffered a serious head injury, the result of a high-speed crash in the famed Hahnenkamm downhill, and ended up in a medically induced coma. Fortunately, Macartney was able to make a full recovery, and despite knowing first-hand the risks involved, he returned to ski racing.

Backstrom, who grew up racing at Crystal Mountain with Macartney, eventually gave up racing and made a name for herself as one of the best female free skiers in the world. She’ll continue to push the envelope even after losing a friend last week, just like she has since her brother Arne died two years ago in a skiing accident in Peru.

For athletes like Backstrom, Macartney and Burke, the sport, and yes, the risk involved, are an important part of life. The heartbreaking news of Burke’s death won’t change that, nor should it.

“It makes you think about it,” Backstrom said. “It makes you think about how I can do it the safest way possible, but it’s who we are and what we do. It’s a part of you. Arne wouldn’t want me to give that up, and Sarah wouldn’t want us to stop doing what we do.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.