Benjamin Karl celebrates Olympic gold with a shirtless tribute to Hermann Maier, ends 25-year wait

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Snowboarder Benjamin Karl might be looking for a new nickname after the Austrian’s impressive victory celebration following his second straight Olympic title.

After winning gold in the men’s parallel giant slalom on Sunday at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Karl stripped off his shirt, did a huge weightlifter flex, then fell bare-chested into the snow.

The move might have seemed spontaneous, but Karl said it was a long-planned tribute to alpine skiing legend Hermann Maier, who was nicknamed “The Herminator” and often celebrated victories in a similar manner.

“He was one of the greatest skiers of all time in Austria and he once did this,” Karl said. “I always wanted to do the same. I lost the chance in Beijing because I was so overwhelmed from emotions, and today I took the chance.

“I needed to wait 25 years to make this pose like Hermann Maier. Now I did it and this is the crown of my career.”

The 40-year-old Karl is competing at his fifth Olympics. As well as the gold he won four years ago in Beijing, he has a silver medal from 2010 and bronze from 2014.

Karl also has a slew of world championship medals, including five golds.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Austria's Benjamin Karl celebrates winning the gold medal against South Korea's Kim Sang-kyum in the men's snowboarding parallel giant slalom finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Austria's Benjamin Karl celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's snowboarding parallel giant slalom finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Austria's Benjamin Karl celebrates after winning the gold medal in men's snowboarding parallel giant slalom finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Austria's Benjamin Karl takes off his shirt as he celebrates winning the gold medal after the men's snowboarding parallel giant slalom finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Austria's Benjamin Karl celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's snowboarding parallel giant slalom finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

SEATTLE (AP) — Press “two” for Spanish ... accent?

For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who have requested automated service in Spanish have instead heard an AI voice speaking English in a strong Spanish accent. The agency has since apologized and says it's trying to fix the problem.

Washington resident Maya Edwards learned of the AI-accented voice last summer after her Mexican husband tried using the Spanish-language option while seeking information about his driver’s license. He is bilingual but saw that the wait time for speaking to a customer service representative in English was long, so he hit “two” for Spanish.

For Edwards, it was a like a scene out of “ Parks and Recreation,” a mocumentary-style comedy show that satires local government.

“It was hilarious to us in the moment because it was so absurd,” she said Thursday. “But at the same time, it has real accessibility issues for people who call in every day and need to speak in a different language other than English.”

Earlier this month, Edwards called the number again and found the error persisted. She posted a video of the call to TikTok, racking up around 2 million views.

The Washington Department of Licensing said in a statement that it was trying to fix the Spanish option and figure out how it happened in the first place. It noted that the self-service option includes 10 languages and runs on a newer, AI-driven technology. It was not immediately clear if the issue had affected other languages; efforts by The Associated Press to use the phone service in some of the other languages Thursday did not prompt additional accented voices.

“DOL apologizes for the error and to its customers for any inconvenience,” the statement said. “An unfortunate byproduct of expanding services is that DOL found problems with the self-service option.”

The agency declined to share the name of the AI vendor providing the translation service, referring the question to WaTech, the state's interagency IT service. A spokesperson for the agency did not immediately provide the name of the vendor following AP voice and email messages requesting it.

Thursday morning, the call line still put on the voice after a message, in English, acknowledging that the some translation services are no functioning properly.

When an AP reporter followed prompts for Spanish-language options, he was met with an accented English voice accent that would only say numbers in Spanish.

“Your estimated wait time is less than ‘tres’ minutes,” the voice said.

Washington resident Maya Edwards is interviewed via Zoom on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo)