Athletes like Breezy Johnson and Alysa Liu have experienced problems with their medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics. What's going on?
Olympic organizers are investigating after multiple athletes reported that their medals detached from their ribbons during opening weekend at the Milan-Cortina Games.2026 Milan Cortina Olympics“Don’t jump in them.
I was jumping in excitement, and it broke," Johnson said after her win Sunday."I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not crazy broken, but a little broken.”Gold medalist USA's Breezy Johnson shows her broken medal to the media following the Women's Alpine Downhill Skiing at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre, Cortina d'Ampezzo, on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Picture date: Sunday Feb. 8, 2026. "I may have set the record for shortest lived Olympic medal," Johnson said with a laugh. She eventually received a new medal as a replacement.Later, fellow U.S. Olympian Alysa Liu posted a video on TikTok titled,"My medal don't need the ribbon." The video showed the gold medal and ribbon, once again, separated. It was the 20-year-old's first Olympic medal, too, as she helped Team USA place first in team event, Additionally, TV footage in Germany captured the moment German biathlete Justus Strelow realized the bronze he'd won Sunday had fallen off the ribbon around his neck and dropped on the floor as he celebrated with his teammates.“We are aware of the situation, we have seen the images. Obviously we are trying to understand in detail if there is a problem,” Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer of the committee, said Monday. “But obviously we are paying maximum attention to this matter, as the medal is the dream of the athletes, so we want that obviously in the moment they are given it that everything is absolutely perfect, because we really consider it to be the most important moment. So we are working on it.”Some athletes compared the deteriorated medals to"crocodile skin" or dating them back to 1924. The French mint eventually produced new ones but declined to say how many specifically.
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