i get very upset thats the last thing i want to see says dara howells mother inside the ringscreditmike blakereutersfeb 11 2014krasnaya polyana russia the athletes willingly accept the risks in winter sports in which yesterdays jawdropping trick too quickly becomes the new normalbut their parents must learn to live with them too and on a tuesday afternoon in the caucasus mountains that was full of pride and joy for doug and dee howell there were also many intheirface reminders of the dark side of the extremeon the day their 19yearold daughter dara won a gold medal in the first slopestyle skiing event in olympic history other canadian pioneers like kaya turski and yuki tsubota were not so fortunate in soft quickmorphing conditions that were difficult to readi get very upset said dee howell daras mother i was in tears for kaya and for yuki when they both fell im in tears because i dont want to see anybody get hurt thats the last thing i want to seeturski the dominant force in the event who is coming back from experimental knee surgery crashed twice in qualifying tuesday morning and did not make the finaltsubota who was still in contention for a medal misjudged her final jump in the second run and landed awkwardly on the flat instead of the steep downslope her helmet and upper body absorbing the considerable impactin full view of the howells and the rest of the crowd gathered below she skidded down the hill and was soon surrounded by medical personnel as the spectators and her competitors went quiet she was carried off on a stretcher and taken to a hospital where peter judge the chief executive of the canadian freestyle skiing association said she was being treated for a jaw injurywe dont know the extent of it yet judge said there is no other issue with other appendages or parts of her body no concussion or anything like thatthat was most reassuring but the scare definitely took some of the festivity out of the moodi know from daras perspective that theres always an inherent risk but she wont do a new trick until shes comfortable dee howell said and theres a progression that they do which they start with trampolines and then they do water ramps and take it to snow so theres a process and she wouldnt do a new trick unless she were comfortable doing ither newest one a switch misty 900 mute grab was quite something to pronounce and behold the offaxis maneuver with twoandahalf rotations from a backward takeoff was the highlight of a cocksure opening run that piled up 9420 points out of a possible 100 and won her the gold by nearly 9 points over devin logan of the united statesbut in howell and logans highrisk highreward event it is clearly a question of when injuries will occur not if this is of course no different from many other winter sports even the traditional ones that have had