CP
SALT LAKE CITY -- Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke remained in a coma Wednesday after suffering "serious injuries" in a crash while training on a superpipe.
In a statement released by the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, a doctor at University of Utah hospital said Burke "sustained serious injuries and remains intubated and sedated in critical condition."
Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, and members of her family are with the skier.
"Sarah is a very strong young woman and she will most certainly fight to recover," said Bushfield.
Earlier, Peter Judge, the CFSA's chief executive officer, said he hadn't been informed of any change in her condition.
"Her family is there in regular touch with the medical people," Judge said. "We've been getting some information but ... we're trying to give them space to be able to deal with this part of it on their time and their terms."
Burke is a halfpipe pioneer who lobbied tirelessly to get her sport included in the Winter Olympics. Halfpipe skiing will debut at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.
She was airlifted from Park City, Utah, to Salt Lake City after crashing at the end of a training run Tuesday in advance of the Winter X Games.
Burke, a native of Barrie, Ont., who grew up in nearby Midland before moving to Squamish, B.C., was training with a private group at the time of the accident.
"We know that she had landed a trick in the pipe and had landed at the bottom of the pipe and kind of hit on her feet, so she landed, and then bounced onto her feet, head kind of thing," Judge said Tuesday. "Apparently, from what we heard, it didn't look like it was that kind of severe a fall, but obviously she must have just hit in the right way."
Park City Mountain Resort spokesman Andy Miller said the accident happened in the early afternoon on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce was critically injured during training on Dec. 31, 2009. Pearce suffered traumatic brain injuries but has since recovered and returned to riding on snow last month.
Well-wishers flooded Burke's Facebook page or posted on Twitter, wishing her a speedy recovery.
"(at)sarah--j--burke - I love you, I'm thinking about, I'm even praying for you," Montreal freestyle skier Maude Raymond said in a Twitter post.
Canadian snowboarder Spencer O'Brien posted: "Hoping and praying the best for (at)sarah--j--burke."
"(at)sarah--j--burke You are strong, please pull through! We all love you and are thinking of you!" posted American superpipe skier Angeli VanLaanen.