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Acrobat Red Panda, a popular halftime performer known for juggling various items while riding a 7-foot unicycle, suffered a scary fall while performing during the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup game at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Red Panda, whose real name is Rong Niu, is well known for her halftime performances at various NBA and WNBA games. Niu’s act involves catching and balancing bowls on her head and feet while riding a unicycle, but Tuesday’s performance at the Commissioner’s Cup game between the Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx took a scary turn shortly after it began.
Niu uses a ladder to mount her unicycle. Shortly after letting go of the ladder, Niu fell off her unicycle and clutched her wrist on the floor. She was attended to by medical professionals before being wheeled off the floor in a wheelchair.
This isn’t the first time Niu has suffered an injury. She previously broke her arm after falling off her unicycle.
“At the beginning, I was riding unicycles two-and-a-half feet high. Then, once you get better, you change the height. After riding like a year or two, you don’t feel the fear any more. You’re getting used to it. But then a few years ago, I fell and broke my arm. That made me feel that fear again. But after a while, you get over that,” she said during an interview with SB Nation in 2018. “I was in a cast for 10 months without practice.”
Niu, who has been a halftime performer since 1993, recently performed during Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. She appeared on Season 8 of “America’s Got Talent” in 2013 and advanced to the quarterfinals before withdrawing due to personal reasons.
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