PYEONGCHANG, South Korea

Cassie Sharpe won the gold medal. If she could divide it into pieces, there would be plenty of places to spread it around.

Part would go to Canada. Part would go to all the women who have pushed her sport so far. And a big part would go to Sarah Burke — the late, great Canadian superstar who pushed women’s ski halfpipe into the Olympics, where it never looked better than it did Tuesday.

Soaring into the sunshine, Sharpe captured Canada’s eighth gold medal of the Pyeongchang Games to edge out Marie Martinod, who now has two Olympic silver medals, also largely thanks to Burke.

Martinod is the 33-year old mom from France who was changing diapers by day and working at a disco by night. She came out of retirement when Burke knocked on her door in 2011 and told her it was time to start training again because halfpipe skiing was taking its show to the Olympics.

Not long after that, Burke was killed in a training accident.

Halfpipe skiing made its Olympic debut at the Sochi Games in 2014 . Burke’s parents and her husband, Rory Bushfield, brought Sarah’s ashes to Russia to have them spread across the mountains. A few nights later, they watched from the bottom as Sarah’s vision became reality.

Bushfield watched the 2018 contest from his house in Whistler, British Columbia. He said the moment was no less meaningful.

“Sarah gave her life for that,” he said. “It’s cool to sit back and enjoy it. It’s super-emotional for me.”

That Sharpe won only enhanced the feeling: “I could not be more proud of a Canadian,” he said.

Midway through the contest, Martinod stopped Sharpe as they were preparing for their final run, with only 3.2 points separating gold and silver and the result still hanging in the balance. Sharpe had only met Burke in passing, but she, like every woman on the halfpipe, is well aware of what the world champion and four-time Winter X Games champion did for their cause.

“Marie told me, ‘I feel you have the ability to carry on what Sarah was doing here,’” Sharpe said. “We are all here, and I wouldn’t be doing the tricks that I do, without her being in this sport.”

Given that, and the fact that Sharpe’s coach, Trennon Paynter, who used to coach Burke, was crying at the top, the 25-year-old champion can certainly be forgiven for not putting down the perfect victory lap after Marinod fell on her third trip down the halfpipe, sealing the win for Sharpe.