Special Narration by Award-Winning Actor Aaron Paul

On Saturday, Feb. 14, ABC will televise “First in Flight: The Sarah Burke and Rory Bushfield story,” a half-hour special from E:60 Pictures about the inspiring love story of the husband and wife winter sports pioneers.  The film will be aired at 3 p.m. ET and 1 p.m. PT, and is narrated by award-winning actor and action sports enthusiast Aaron Paul.

Burke, a four-time X Games gold medalist in Ski SuperPipe and the first skier to win an ESPY award in 2007, passed away in a 2012 ski accident while training in Park City, Utah, just weeks before she was to compete at X Games Aspen. Despite this tragedy, her legacy lives on in the sport through her push for progression, influence and contributions beyond skiing. Her husband, Rory Bushfield, a former X Games competitor and accomplished professional skier, started the Sarah Burke Foundation after Burke’s passing to provide scholarships and assistance to others in sports and future generations to carry on her spirit of generosity and philanthropy.

How much would you risk for the sport you love? And what would that mean for the people you love? For Sarah Burke and Rory Bushfield those answers are one and the same — everything. Sarah and Rory were pioneers of winter action sports, daredevils of freeskiing, thrill-seekers in love with adventure. They were also in love with each other. The couple met as teenagers at a ski camp in western Canada, when both dreamed of competing in the Winter Olympics. But soon, freeskiiing, a new and emerging discipline, took hold of their imaginations and competitive spirits. Sarah became the best female half-pipe skier in the world, a four-time gold medalist in the Winter X Games.  Rory gave up his promising career on Olympic development teams to also pursue freeskiing, and to pursue Sarah. In 2010, surrounded by family and friends in the mountains near their home, Sarah and Rory exchanged wedding vows. They dedicated their lives to each other and to the mantra they both had adopted: “Scare yourself every day.” They happily accepted that living on the edge meant the possibility of paying the ultimate price.

Clip, photos, and quotes below:

• “FIRST IN FLIGHT” TRAILER
• Photos (courtesy of Rory Bushfield)
• Quotes from “First in Flight:”
  • Sarah Burke: “I’m a firm believer in getting your heart going and trying something different…I think you should scare yourself every day.”
  • Sarah Burke: “We’ve basically devoted our lives to the mountains…it’s where we met…it’s where we play…we live…and (Rory Bushfield) “hopefully where we die.”
  • Anna Phelan (Sarah Burke’s sister): “They just had that mentality…//…go do something crazy. // ski down a bigger hill, ski down a rock face…// And she found her partner…// and someone that felt the same way.”
  • Grete Eliassen (United States Freeskiing Team): “If you’re a woman and you’re skiing …you owe pretty much everything to her.  She just wanted girls to be able to progress their skiing and get better and she wanted to make the field bigger.”
  • Peter Olenick (Professional Freestyle Skier): The risks in everything that they were doing the way that they lived their lives was definitely high but …each one of them always knows that it is there and something can go wrong at any time and …. they’re OK with that and that’s how they wanted to live.”
  • Trennon Paynter (Sarah’s Coach): ”For her to be an Olympian is …the culmination of her athletic path. She’s built a sport…she’s created a path for women…She’s the shining example of what an Olympian should be.”

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Contact:                     

Carrie Kreiswirth           ESPN Communications, 646-547-4686, [email protected]