VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Australia will play the 2024 Olympics without forward Bec Allen after tests revealed a high-grade hamstring injury suffered in the Opals’ final warmup for the Paris Games. Coach Sandy Brondello, who coaches the WNBA’s New York Liberty, called Allen a hard player to replace and wished the 6-foot-2 forward from Melbourne, Australia, a speedy recovery. Injuries are …
Listen to this story: Sebastian Deisenberger leaned over the table in his garden, at his home on the edge of the Australian outback, his eyes glistening. “It took a hundred million years to form and come to that stage and then you’re the first one who sees that." Deisenberger is one of a few hundred full-time miners in Lightning Ridge, …