Winter Olympics officials have launched an investigation into a series of incidents where winners’ medals have cracked, chipped, or snapped.
US gold medallist Breezy Johnson warned “don’t jump in them” when describing her prize from the Milano-Cortina Olympics.
Another US gold medallist, figure skater Alysa Liu, revealed that like Johnson, the ribbon had come away from the medal soon after her win.
Johnson showed her broken medal at the post-event media conference after winning the women’s downhill alpine skiing, telling reporters that the piece of the medal that the ribbon wraps around keeps breaking.
She said: “So there’s the medal. And there’s the ribbon. And here’s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal, and yeah, it came apart.”
Liu showed her broken medal on social media, captioning her post with ”My medal don’t need the ribbon.”
The organisers are investigating the issue according to Andrea Francisi, Milan-Cortina 2026 chief games operations officer.
“We are fully aware of the situation,” Francisi said at a press conference. “We are looking into exactly what the problem is.
“We are going to pay particular attention to the medals, and obviously this is something we want to be perfect when the medal is handed over because this is one of the most important moments for the athletes.”
Surprisingly, this is not the first incident criticising the quality of the medals awarded at the Olympics, and as of February 2025, a total of 220 requests have been made to replace damaged medals won at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games due to showing signs of ”tarnishing”.