One of the most popular acts in halftime entertainment sustained an injury on Tuesday night in Minneapolis as Rong “Krystal” Niu, better known under her stage name of “Red Panda,” needed to be assisted off the court after falling during halftime of the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup championship game between the Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx.
Niu has delighted basketball fans in numerous NBA, college basketball and WNBA venues since her debut in 1993.
The “Red Panda” rides a 2.1m-tall unicycle while catching and balancing a large number of metal bowls on her head during her act.
Photo: AP
Reporters for MinnPost and ESPN confirmed that Niu took a hard spill, falling from her unicycle during Tuesday’s performance.
The popular performer laid still for some time, cradling her left wrist before being taken off the court in a wheelchair.
Once called “the best halftime act in basketball” by Dime, Niu retired in 2013 to support her father while he battled cancer.
She practiced occasionally during this timeframe and sustained her first wrist injury.
After she mourned her father’s death due to esophageal cancer and helped her mother deal with an illness, Niu made her return in 2015 as she revealed in a Sports on Earth interview that she could not stay away.
“I missed it,” Niu said. “The crowd. The energy. The challenge. From my heart, I feel like this is a part of my home. Although I lost my father, I still have this part of my life with me, just like before.”
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
Ukrainian coal miner Andrii’s face lit up when he talked about meeting Oleksandr Usyk. “Wow,” the 36-year-old said in English. Andrii and more than a dozen other war veterans were on hand when Usyk beat Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night to become the undisputed world heavyweight champion. It was a rematch of their 2023 bout that Andrii viewed under vastly different circumstances. “I watched this fight on the front line on my phone,” he said through an interpreter during a stop on Friday at the Ukrainian Embassy in London. “We were watching very quietly, but when he won there was loud
Saudi Arabia yesterday were drawn to take on Iraq and Indonesia in the fourth phase of Asia’s preliminaries for next year’s FIFA World Cup, with back-to-back Asian Cup winners Qatar to face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. The winners of each of the three-team groups, which are to be played in October, would join already-qualified Australia, Japan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Iran and Jordan at next year’s expanded 48-nation finals in the US, Canada and Mexico. Saudi Arabia, who are attempting to qualify for a seventh World Cup finals since 1994, are to host Group A and open against Indonesia on
RSS