Chinese snowboarder taken off on stretcher after scary fall at Olympics

Sport

Chinese snowboarder taken off on stretcher after scary fall at Olympics

2026-02-11 21:21 Last Updated At：21:30

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Chinese snowboarder Liu Jiayu took a scary fall in Olympic halfpipe qualifying Wednesday and had to be carried off on a stretcher after landing hard on her left arm and shoulder, slamming her face and stomach to the ground then bending backward and somersaulting through the bottom of the pipe.

There was no immediate word from the Chinese team on Liu's status. The fall, which came after the 33-year-old Liu caught an edge while landing her final jump, stopped action on the halfpipe for about 10 minutes while medical personnel attended to her.

Liu was trying to finish her second and final run of qualifying with a 900-degree spin.

The board slammed flat onto the transition part of the pipe, but quickly caught an edge as it approached the flat part, slamming Liu violently forward while her legs and board snapped over her back — a wreck known in snowboarding parlance as a “Scorpion.”

America's Chloe Kim finished first in qualifying and will move on to Thursday night's final.

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

South African soldiers dismantle illegal mining operations near Johannesburg as miners flee

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African soldiers deployed to high-crime areas have dismantled illegal gold mining operations in a community near Johannesburg, forcing some illegal miners to flee and abandon their equipment.

Police and the army recovered various tools used by illegal miners, including generators and drill machines — equipment documented by an Associated Press photographer on Thursday.

Makeshift trenches with food supplies and utensils belonging to the miners were also dismantled, with clothing items left behind after the miners fled the site in Randfontein, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the west of Johannesburg.

The operations were part of a rare move by the government to deploy soldiers in some of the country's most crime-ridden areas, including in the Western Cape province that includes the city of Cape Town and the economic hub province of Gauteng.

With dozens of abandoned mine shafts lining the outskirts of Johannesburg, illegal mining is rife in the area as heavily armed crime syndicates and informal miners known as “zama zamas” enter the shafts in search of leftover deposits of gold or other precious minerals.

It is illegal to mine without a government license, and in some places, the conditions are dangerous.

Other provinces with abandoned shafts, like the North West and Mpumalanga, have also experienced high levels of illegal mining, sometimes with tragic consequences.

Authorities say there are an estimated 30,000 illegal miners in South Africa, operating in some of its 6,000 abandoned mine shafts.

The government has noted an increase in illegal mining, which it estimates is worth more than $4 billion a year just in gold lost to criminal syndicates.

The trade is believed to be predominantly controlled by migrants from neighboring Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, stoking anger among South African communities against both the criminal bosses and foreigners living in the local community.

Responding to questions from lawmakers on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the deployment of the troops would take place alongside other measures, such as strengthening anti-gang units and illegal mining task teams.

“The police will also be working with the National Prosecuting Authority on multi-disciplinary task teams to target the leadership, finances, firearms and logistics of these criminal networks,” Ramaphosa said.