Olympic organizers confirmed that they’re investigating an issue of broken medals at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics with “maximum attention.”
“We are aware of the situation, we have seen the images. Obviously we are trying to understand in detail if there is a problem,” said Andre Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics organizing committee, on Monday (February 9), the Associated Press reports. “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.”
American Breezy Johnson acknowledged that her gold medal fell off its ribbon while celebrating her women’s downhill ski victory on Sunday (February 8), which had been the case with several other athletes early in the ongoing event.
“Don’t jump in them. I was jumping in excitement, and it broke,” Johnson said via the Associated Press. “I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not crazy broken, but a little broken.”
German biathlete Justus Strelow had his bronze medal break off and fall to the floor while celebrating with his teammates after the mixed relay during NBC‘s live broadcast on Sunday. U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu also shared a clip of her gold medal won in the team event detached from its ribbon on social media.
“My medal don’t need the ribbon,” Liu wrote while holding her medal and ribbon in separate hands on her Instagram Story Monday.
A similar issue occurred during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, when some medals had to be replaced after athletes pointed out that they began to tarnish or corrode, resulting in a mottled look similar to crocodile skin.
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