The Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 have been well underway, with another week of action left. However, things have gone terribly wrong for Team Australia in the snowboarding events.

In the mixed team snowboard cross quarter-finals, Australia’s hopes of making it to the semi-finals came to an end. In a freak accident, cross stars Josie Baff and Belle Brockhoff crashed into each other.

Consequently, it was team USA and Switzerland that made it to the next stage, the semi-finals.

Australian cross stars in a horrific accident at Beijing Winter Olympics 2022

Owing to a nightmare collision between Josie Baff and Belle Brockhoff, Australia’s hopes of setting a new Winter Olympics record have now ceased.

It was in the second run of their heat that Baff, and Brockhoff collided on the snow. In fact, Brockhoff and her teammate Cam Bolton could easily have finished second behind team USA before the accident put a sudden end to their hopes.

Following the collision, medical crews immediately came down and attended to Brockhoff for several minutes. Then, they brought in a stretcher for the 29-year-old snowboarder, evacuating her from the snow.

Her teammate, 3-time Olympian, Cam Bolton, acknowledged that owing to the accident, the results of their team were “extremely disappointing”. However, “there’s bigger fish to fry,” he said, as he hoped, “that Belle is okay.”

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“I hope she’s doing well,” Bolton stated, describing how Belle “went down pretty hard”. Nevertheless, he did update the media on Belle’s health, sharing that he heard from her team, and they reassured him that Belle was doing okay.

According to Bolton, “the Olympics could (not) have gone much worse for the Australian boarders/cross teams,” as Belle happened to crash into her compatriot, Josie Baff, who was also competing in the event with her teammate, Adam Lambert.

Australia’s hopes come to an end

Team Australia had been hopeful of a great result in the mixed snowboarding events at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, as they had not one, but two teams running for the podium.

On one hand, were Josie Baff and Adam Lambert. Secondly, Belle Brockhoff and Cam Bolton were in the running for gold too.

Moreover, it even seemed that Belle and Cam would easily make their way to the semi-finals with their American competitors, leaving behind Kalle Koblet and Sophie Hediger from the Swiss Team.

However, that was not to be, as it was the USA and Switzerland teams that made it to the semis following Australia’s crash.

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