What did it take to reach the Olympics? Only eight surgeries

American Brita Sigourney earns bronze on final run of freestyle skiing halfpipe

canada goose factory outlet BONGPYEONG, South Korea Up and up she went, climbing the halfpipe’s 22 foot wall, canada goose uk black friday launching into the sky, spinning and twisting in a midair ballet that’s barely a blur to the naked eye. She did this six times, and when Brita Sigourney finally fell to Earth, she had somehow after years of stumbles and setbacks landed right on the PyeongChang Olympic podium. canada goose factory outlet

canada goose outlet online Thad and Julie Sigourney knew instantly what it all meant. They had spent years going to freestyle skiing competitions, trying not to avert their eyes. They had watched their daughter land so many times not on a podium but a hospital bed. What did it take to reach the Olympics? Only eight surgeries broken bones and torn ligaments from Sigourney’s ankle to her collarbone and just about everywhere in between. canada goose outlet online

canada goose outlet store What do you say when you’re the parent of a daughter who thrives off adrenaline so Canada Goose sale much that she might as well have cheap Canada Goose a frequent customer punch Canada Goose online card to her neighborhood surgeon? Urge her to find a safer pursuit, Canada Goose Outlet perhaps? canada goose outlet store

“I bit my tongue until blood came out of the corner of my mouth,” Thad Sigourney said.

canada goose outlet uk It was hard not to think of all this Tuesday at Phoenix Snow Park, where the 28 year old from Carmel, Calif., with a body that’s been patched and repaired several times over, took bronze in the women’s ski halfpipe. Her impressive final run vaulted her from fourth place to third, nudging fellow American Annalisa Drew off the podium. canada goose outlet uk

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canada goose outlet uk sale For Sigourney, Tuesday marked the apex of a long journey. She turned in a sixth place finish four years ago at the Sochi Games and had no guarantees her body would hold up and allow canada goose her to return to the Olympic stage. canada goose outlet uk sale

canada canadian goose jacket goose black friday sale “I think canada goose uk outlet I wanted it more this time. At my first Olympics, I just didn’t know what to expect, and I was just so happy to be there,” she said. “But this time, I really wanted it.” canada goose black friday sale

canada goose outlet reviews Her top performance at the world championships was a sixth place finish, and that came way back in 2011. Her best finishes at the Winter X Games uk canada goose included a pair of silvers. The second one came just last month in Aspen, canada goose uk shop Colo., a full seven years since her first second place finish there. canada goose outlet reviews

“I’ve been working on buy canada goose jacket cheap the mental game all year, and it’s definitely paid off,” Sigourney said. “Just having a lot of confidence has helped me over the past few events.”

canada goose outlet store uk She will happily accept this PyeongChang medal, but she doesn’t need a mantel full of awards to know how far she has come. Her medical charts tell the story: Sigourney has broken her collarbone, torn an anterior cruciate ligament, busted her pelvis, broken her knee cap and torn a ligament in her thumb. canada goose outlet store uk

“It definitely helps to have an Olympic medal to prove everything I’ve overcome was worth it,” she said. Canada Goose Online “All those surgeries were worth it. It was worth it to keep fighting, and all that rehab and physical therapy I’ve done was worth it.”

canada goose outlet nyc But why even stick with it? Hers is a sport where you don’t launch into the air unless you have a plan. She didn’t want to stick with the sport she wanted to keep pushing it forward. canada goose outlet nyc

“She was so determined,” Julie Sigourney said. “It made me crazy. ‘To progress the sport’ if I ever heard that again, I was just going to scream.”

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canada goose jacket outlet Once, Sigourney went in for shoulder surgery and came out to the news that her shoulder was fine but her knee needed to go under the knife as well. No shoulder meant no crutches, which put Sigourney in a wheelchair for three months. For a while there, it felt like every year brought some new medical calamity. Sigourney called those stretches canada goose clearance “the struggle bus.” canada goose jacket outlet

“And sometimes the bus just didn’t want to let her out,” Thad Sigourney said.

canada goose outlet online uk But the past buy canada goose jacket couple of years, her body has held up, and she had worked hard to catch up to peers who didn’t miss long stretches of training. Sigourney clawed her way back to the sport’s biggest stage, one more chance to help raise the bar. canada goose outlet online uk

goose outlet canada She entered Tuesday’s finals with the third best score from qualifying and came out of the gates http://www.mycanadagoosejacket.org strong. Her 89.80 mark put her in third after one run in uk canada goose outlet the three round finals. That stood as Sigourney’s top score until her final canada goose clearance sale run, when she stood in fourth place. Drew had just earned a 90.80, putting her in position for a medal and canada goose coats on sale potentially bumping Sigourney from the podium. goose outlet canada

canada goose outlet Sigourney needed a big run and left nothing to chance, going higher and bigger and impressing the judges enough to earn a 91.60 canada goose store and overtake her teammate. Canada’s Cassie Sharpe posted the day’s top score of 95.80 to win gold, while France’s Marie Martinod, the 33 year old who took silver four years ago in Sochi, again finished in second with a score of 92.60. canada goose outlet

canada goose outlet in usa While Drew had to settle for fourth place, fellow American Maddie Bowman finished last out of the 11 competitors who skied in the finals. Bowman, who won gold four years ago when the women’s ski halfpipe debuted at the Olympics, took a tumble late in each of her three finals runs. On the last, she appeared to canada goose factory sale hit the back of her head on the ground and momentarily laid still on the snow. She was helped up by medical personnel, eventually rising to her feet and skiing out of the pipe on her own. canada goose outlet in usa

canada goose outlet new york city “It’s hard to be a parent. I’d rather be a connected friend or a spectator,” Thad Sigourney said. canada goose coats “Being a parent is pretty tough on mom and dad at times.” canada goose outlet new york city.

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