Sarah Burke: Making Freestyle Skiing Safer Is Easier Said Than Done

It's been a week since star freeskier Sarah Burke took a nasty spill during a training run on the superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah. Unfortunately, her status remains uncertain.

Last week, Burke's publicist revealed that Burke had undergone surgery to repair a vertebral artery tear, but that the 29-year-old was still in critical condition. 

Burke's family was scheduled to provide an update on Burke's condition to the media on Monday, but they canceled at the last minute. Per CNN, a hospital spokeswoman said in an email that further tests are needed in the coming days before any updates can be offered.

Burke's neurointensivist said in a statement that Burke "needs more time before any prognosis can be determined."

It goes without saying that this is a scary situation, one that has the skiing and extreme sports communities on edge. Naturally, Burke's injury has also called the safety of freestyle skiing into question.

Here's how The Vancouver Sun described the debate going on behind the scenes:

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Burke's accident once again brings up questions about the safety of the sport, and superpipes in general, which have walls soaring as high as 22 feet—more than 25 percent higher since the middle of the last decade.

Experts within the sport believe improved pipe-building technology, along with air bags and mandatory helmets have made the sport safer, not more dangerous.

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Essentially, the question being asked is whether or not safety measures are up to speed with the ever-increasing risk-taking nature of the sport. The halfpipes have gotten taller and the tricks have gotten more dangerous, but have the athletes taken measures to make themselves safer?

Dr. Thomas Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, addressed the topic in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, and he indicated that the answer is yes:

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Although athletes may be driving the trend of going bigger, they are well aware of the risks—and none of them want to be injured. They take every precaution, wearing helmets and training and practicing maneuvers over and over.

Hackett, head team physician for U.S. Snowboarding, said recently he's seen snowboarders working with air bags—the type firefighters use to rescue people—to practice landings.

"This allows them to practice without the consequences of landing on snow or ice," he said, one example of how the sport is increasing its focus on safety.

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In so many words, the risk-takers are well aware of the risks they are taking. They may be brave, but none of them are stupid.

This is obviously a comforting thought, but Burke's injury goes to show that accidents are going to happen. It just so happens that the extreme nature of freeskiing makes serious accidents an ever-present possibility.

It is certainly worth noting that Burke is not the first person to suffer a serious injury on the halfpipe at  Park City Mountain Resort, as snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered severe brain damage after a fall on New Year's Eve, 2009.

Though precautions can be taken, the question that arises from accidents like these is whether or not they can be avoided. Or at the very least, if the seriousness of these accidents can be lessened.

Indications are that this is a much tougher puzzle to solve. Though Dr. Hackett says researchers are catching up with their studies on how extreme sports injuries can be avoided, the studies themselves have been "few and far between."

Aside from decreasing the height of the halfpipes or altering the surface of them in some way, it's difficult to imagine exactly how freeskiing is going to be made any safer than it already is. Precautions can be taken, but it's still a dangerous sport.

Of course, freeskiing, Burke's primary discipline, is meant to be a dangerous sport.

As the Toronto Star pointed out, it's a sport that was conceived because freestyle skiing had gotten "too mainstream." Freeskiing was born out of a desire to push the envelope, and Burke was one of many who led the charge.

It remains to be seen how Burke's accident will change the sport, if it does at all. Her injury could serve as a wake-up call that will put a stop to the envelope-pushing, and it may even cause things to be toned down a little.

Either that, or freeskiing will carry on as it has been carrying on. 

In that case, the obvious hope is that additional safety measures can be taken.