Sarah Burke and her Tryumf

By: Whitney G

The silver medalist for the 2014 Winter Olympics, 29 year old Marie Martinod, is finally ready to say her final goodbye to her long time friend, Sarah Burke, that had died 2 years ago after her championship of the ski halfpipe.

"I did what she asked me to do when I last saw her," said Martinod from France.

They last saw each other in March 2011. Burke had just earned gold at France's European X Games and the World Cup halfpipe in nearby La Plagne. She stopped by Martinod's house. While she was there she told her to come out of retirement because the ski halfpipe is going to be in the olympics. She had a couple issues with this because she has a 1 year old daughter. Also she hasn’t skied competitively since 2006.

"Sarah, I love you, but it's impossible," Martinod said, recalling their conversation. "It's such a long time I quit skiing. Then here I am."

In 2001, Burke, a former moguls skier who trained with the fellows to master the then- nascent sport of freeskiing, was one of few female skiers to compete in what many consider the first women's ski pipe event at Vail's U.S. Open. In 2005, she lobbied X Games organizers to not just display women skiers in the pipe, but pay them the same purse as men. Dozens of athletes gave the credit to Burke with their sport's celebrated status at the Olympics.

"These Games are for Sarah. We wouldn't be here without her," said Canadian slopestyle snowboarder Spencer O'Brien. She wore a “Sarah” band on her binding even though Olympic organizers banning the ubiquitous "Sarah" stickers on helmets, skis and boards.

Canadian snowboarder Kim LaMarre said she talked to Burke before her final run down the slopestyle course last week.

"I said, 'Sarah, let's do this together,' " said the 25-year-old, who had won bronze in the first Olympic snowboard slopestyle contest. "And when I landed, I was like, 'Yeah, Sarah, we did it.' I was so happy. I could not be more honored to do this and honor her in such a big way. Yeah, Sarah!"

Gordon Burke came to Russia with Sarah's mother, Jan Phelan, to celebrate their daughter's Olympic efforts. That thursday night, a crowd of athletes and coaches from all different countries around the world embraced Gordon.

"It seems to never end, but it's been very intense in the Olympics," he said of the past two years, his grief eroded by the global outpouring of love for his daughter. "The world has recognized this as sort of her hour." He said that his daughter would be laughing at all the attention he was getting.

"She didn't feel that special. Certainly she was special to me," he said. "I am intensely proud of her as a human being. The skiing was one thing, but the reason all the girls loved her and so many people around the world, is just who she was; kind and generous and supportive. There was a special energy that surrounded her." This energy was put into Thursday at the halfpipe.

Bowman was a young skier trying to make a name in the halfpipe when Burke took her in. Bowman said meeting her idol "was the coolest moment in my life."

"Sarah has inspired on snow and off snow — and I think she would have been very proud of how all the girls rode tonight," Bowman said. "I sure hope that I and everyone else made her proud, because we would not be here without her."