As margin for error decreases, risk of wipeouts increases

Snowboarding and freestyle have been making waves at the Olympics for their spectacular repertoire of daring moves, but the number of bruising injuries has also sparked accusations of sheer recklessness.

Sometimes it is more than just injuries. Two years ago, Canadian Sarah Burke died at just 29 after crashing on a superpipe during a training run in Utah.

Burke was a relative veteran, but one striking feature of these disciplines is the proliferation of young athletes, many barely out of their teens or even still in them, such as Tuesday's men's halfpipe medalists from Japan, Ayumu Hirano, 15, and Taku Hiraoka, 18.