X Games: Burke lands third superpipe gold

Aspen, Colo. – A wet, heavy snow fell throughout the day on Buttermilk Mountain, slowing down most of the SuperPipe competitors, but not Sarah Burke as she grabbed her third consecutive gold medal in the Women’s Skiing SuperPipe final.

Burke trailed the competition through two runs, but nailed her final run of a 900 to a huge straight air to a 540 to a right-side 540 and closed out the run with a 720 edging out the silver medalist Jen Hudak 93.33 to 92.66.

Aspen, Colo. – A wet, heavy snow fell throughout the day on Buttermilk Mountain, slowing down most of the SuperPipe competitors, but not Sarah Burke as she grabbed her third consecutive gold medal in the Women’s Skiing SuperPipe final.

Burke trailed the competition through two runs, but nailed her final run of a 900 to a huge straight air to a 540 to a right-side 540 and closed out the run with a 720 edging out the silver medalist Jen Hudak 93.33 to 92.66.

“Going into my last run I was like, ‘come on Sarah you can do this, it is your day,'” an excited Burke said following the race. “It all came together and right before I dropped in a bunch of kids at the top said, ‘I love you Sarah.’  It was so cool.”

With the freshly-fallen snow covering the mountain, there was some concern about the condition of the pipe.  But bronze medalist Jess Cummings said the conditions could not be better.

“I can’t believe the weather and clouds lifted like this,” Cummings said.  The pipe was perfect, it was big and smooth.”

The Skiing SuperPipe event represents the progression of the sport and showcases the best pipe riders in the world.  The 540-foot long, 22-foot deep SuperPipe is 75-feet from lip-to-lip with a pitch of 18 degrees.  This translates into maximum amplitude and speed for the athletes to perform their tricks. 

X Games women’s skiing superpipe final results:
1.         Sarah Burke                       Whistler, BC, Canada                 93.33
2.         Jen Hudak                          Aspen, Colo.                             92.66
3.         Jess Cumming                     Wilton, Conn.                            84.00
4.         Roz Groenewould                 Calgary, AB, Canada                 81.00
5.         Virginie Faivre                   Montreux, Switzerland                79.66
6.         Angeli VanLaanen                    Bellingham, Wash.                     76.33
7.         Grete Eliassen                          Salt Lake City, Utah                   69.00
8.         Mirjam Jaeger                       Zurich, Switzerland                    64.33