Heres what I have learned about Sarah Burke. She was a pioneer. She did things on skis that made the birds take notice. Sarah Burke was a crusader. For years she fought to get womens halfpipe recognized as a sport. She was a dreamer too. Her mom, Jan Phelan, told me that even as a little kid she wanted to ski in the Olympics. Jan still lives and makes art only a few blocks away from her daughters house in Squamish, B.C. A few weeks before the Sochi Olympics I went to meet her to talk about her daughters legacy. She told me about how when Sarah took up halfpipe as a teenager, as the only woman in the sport, she competed against men. “So she said , Okay, I will compete against the senior men. And so she came fourth, and landed the first 1080 in a competition. And so of all of these men, many of whom were on the world cup circuit, Sarah, this little kid came fourth. Isnt that something?" Thats how Sarah Burke first put womens halfpipe on the map. But she didnt stop there. Jan remembers proofreading the emails Sarah wrote when she was 14 to the X Games asking them why women couldnt compete. At events Sarah tracked down officials and demanded women be given a chance. For years she was turned down. “She would be crying in her goggles and venting her frustration and then she would say, Okay, I am going to go back and talk to them again. I could just imagine the tears filling up her goggles because she was so mad. And she had worked so hard at it.” Some super sad times I met Sarahs husband, Rory Bushfield, on his driveway. And in a matter of moments he had conviced me to put his bike in our little CBC rental car and shuttle him up a mountain so he could go for a ride. We obliged. “Its been two years since Sarah passed and I have gone through some super sad times but everything about Sarah is easy to smile about. She did it with grace, and she did it with class, pushed herself in the right places, skied half pipe like a champion, did so many first tricks for women that had never been done, you know, continued to push and continued to push.” Finally, in 2005, Sarah broke through. Her work paid off. Womens halfpipe got a spot in the world championships. Sarah won gold, and in her post-run interview she kept on pushing: “I am keeping my fingers crossed for the Olympics, we are only get better and I am hoping to get it in there.” But Sarah would never make it to the Olympics. On Jan. 19, 2012, Sarah Burke died after a crash while training in Utah. But in a way she won her fight. She got her sport into the Olympics. And so in Sochi, when the women drop into the halfpipe for the first time, Sarahs dream will have come true. Canadian slopestyle Spencer OBrien was a close friend of Burkes, and after her qualifying runs she showed me the little tape banner that still hangs on her board two years after Sarah died. Jan Phelan is making the long trip from Squamish to Sochi. She wants to stand near the halfpipe as the women compete and witness her daughters legacy. “If you had asked me, before this happened, what was the worst thing in my life would be, it would be to lose a child. To lose Sarah. I now know that there is one thing worse and that is to never have had her at all. Right. So what that tells me is to look at all these wonderful things she did accomplish and to enjoy them, let them bring you happiness.” Custom Detroit Lions Jerseys . Cincinnati has lost back-to-back games in overtime, wasting a chance to take a commanding lead in their division. Kenny Golladay Youth Jersey . The Wizards announced Friday that Webster had surgery to repair a herniated disc in his lower back. 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The Colts fate was confirmed with the publication of the NFL schedule on Thursday evening, which also revealed that the 2016 season will kick-off with a rematch of Super Bowl 50 as the reigning champions Denver Broncos host the Carolina Panthers on Thursday, September 8.It is the first time the opening weekend has featured a Super Bowl rematch since 1970 when the Minnesota Vikings played Kansas City. The Panthers and Broncos will go head-to-head again in the first week of the season I think its great, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said. Its a big challenge for our team. It gets our attention really quick.We know that were going to have to have a really good offseason. Weve got some changes going on with our football team, but our standard will be the same. Well look forward to it.The other five teams playing in London next season will all get a bye week after the trip, which has been the case for each franchise to play at Wembley since the first game in 2007, but the Colts will host the Chicago Bears the week after facing the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.NFL executive vice president of international Mark Waller said during Super Bowl week that the rest would need to be looked at before a United Kingdom-based franchise could be set up. The Rams will play their first game back in Los Angeles in week two, against the Seattle Seahawks I think the reality is, if we ever put a team into the UK, youre not going to be able to commit that every team that comes to play an away game is going to get their bye week the week after.ddddddddddddIts just not possible. At some point we are going to need to find a way to play games in the UK without the need for a bye week afterwards.This years International Series will see two games played at Wembley, while the New York Giants face the newly-relocated Los Angeles Rams at Twickenham on October 23 and the Houston Texans face the Oakland Raiders in Mexico City on November 21. The Jacksonville Jaguars are regular visitors to Wembley and will play the Colts there in week four Meanwhile, the Rams will play their first regular-season game in Los Angeles since returning to the city in week two, when they will host the Seattle Seahawks. The Minnesota Vikings, seeking successive NFC North titles, are also moving into a new home and play their first game at the US Bank Stadium against the Green Bay Packers the same week.Most Week 16 games will be played on Christmas Eve with the exception of the Pittsburgh Steelers v Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs v Broncos, which will take place on Christmas Day. 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