Medal Incidents at the Winter Olympics in Milan

Breaking news from Milan: a problem has arisen with some medals awarded during the Winter Olympics, including one belonging to Breezy Johnson, an American gold medalist in downhill skiing. During the first week of the Milan-Cortina Games, several medals were found to be detached from their ribbons.

After her win on Sunday, Johnson shared, “I got a bit too excited and jumped in, and it broke. I’m sure someone will fix it. It’s not completely broken, but, well, it’s a little off.”

In a similar vein, American figure skater Alisa Liu posted a video on social media showing her own team gold medal being separated from its ribbon, stating, “My medal doesn’t need a ribbon.”

Andrea Francis, who is the director of operations for the organizing committee, mentioned that they are looking into the situation. “We are aware of what’s going on, and we’ve seen the images. We’re trying to grasp the details of the situation,” she said on Monday.

She emphasized, “Naturally, we are paying close attention to this. An athlete’s medal is a dream come true, so we want everything to go perfectly when it’s presented. That moment is incredibly important, and we’re working on it.”

There have been other instances too; for example, a member of the German biathlon team, Justus Strelow, accidentally dropped his bronze medal while celebrating with his teammates.

In an Instagram post, the German biathlon team humorously questioned, “Olympics, what happened to that medal? Aren’t they supposed to be celebrated?”

This incident follows issues from the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where some medals were reported to have discoloration or corrosion. By early February 2025, over 200 requests for medal exchanges had already been reported for the Paris Games.