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<\/p>\nBreaking news: We\u2019re less than a week into the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, but at least four winning athletes have already seen their hard-earned medals snap, shatter or split \u2014 including Team USA\u2019s first gold.<\/p>\n
Alpine skier Breezy Johnson\u2019s prize for edging Germany’s Emma Aicher by four hundredths of a second in the women\u2019s downhill final on Sunday didn\u2019t even survive the medal ceremony. Instead, it cracked into three pieces as she was celebrating.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Johnson shows her broken medal to the media following the race.<\/p>\n
(Andrew Milligan\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I was jumping up and down in excitement, and it fell off,\u201d Johnson told reporters as she displayed the remnants of her medal. \u201cI think that’s maybe why it broke.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Don\u2019t jump in them,\u201d Johnson advised her fellow athletes.<\/p>\n
Alysa Liu\u2019s team-event gold suffered a similar fate, the U.S. figure skater revealed Sunday on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy medal don\u2019t need the ribbon,\u201d Liu wrote on a reel showing her team prize in one hand and its blue ribbon in the other.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s being done to fix the problem?<\/p>\n
On Monday, Olympic organizers announced at a press conference that they are \u201cfully aware of the situation\u201d and investigating possible causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen the images,\u201d Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the Milan Cortina organizing committee, told reporters. \u201cWe are paying maximum attention to this matter, as the medal is the dream of the athletes, so we want \u2026 the moment they are given it [to be] absolutely perfect, because we really consider it to be the most important moment. So we are working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, at least two European athletes have also broken their medals. In a moment captured on German TV that subsequently went viral<\/a>, biathlete Justus Strelow suddenly realized as he danced with teammates that the mixed relay bronze he’d won on Sunday had detached from the ribbon around his neck and clattered to the floor.<\/p>\n Strelow tried to reattach the medal before realizing that a smaller piece \u2014 seemingly the clasp \u2014 had snapped off.<\/p>\n \u201cHey Olympics, what\u2019s up with those medals?\u201d read an Instagram post from the German biathlon team<\/a>. \u201cAre they not meant to be celebrated?\u201d<\/p>\n Likewise, Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson told a broadcaster in her home country that her women\u2019s skiathlon silver \u201cfell in the snow and broke in two.”<\/p>\n “Now I hope the organizers have a ‘Plan B’ for broken medals,\u201d Andersson said.<\/p>\n A United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee spokesperson told BBC Sport<\/a> that they are waiting for organizers to resolve the issue. It has \u201cnot yet been confirmed whether athletes will receive replacement medals,\u201d BBC Sport reported.<\/p>\n What\u2019s causing the medals to break?<\/p>\n The problem may stem from a flawed connection between the ribbon and the medal itself, according to Reuters<\/a>. Citing a \u201csource close to the situation,\u201d the wire service reported that the medal\u2019s \u201ccord\u201d is \u201cfitted with a breakaway mechanism required by law,\u201d which is \u201cdesigned to release automatically if pulled with force, preventing the wearer from being choked.\u201d<\/p>\n Olympic medals are redesigned for every winter and summer competition. This year\u2019s edition is split into two inclined halves. One has a mirrored, ice-like surface; the other a frosty, granular texture. According to its creators,<\/a> the design is a nod to the dual host cities, Milan and Cortina, that symbolizes the \u201cunion of two parts in constant motion.\u201d Raffaella Pani\u00e8, director of identity for the competition, has also described the medal\u2019s two halves as side-by-side tributes to the winning athlete and \u201call the teamwork that brought them\u201d to the Games.<\/p>\n To hide the ribbon, the Milan Cortina medals also feature a \u201cnewly designed inlet\u201d that prevents the fabric from \u201ccovering the face\u201d of the prize, according to Reuters. This inlet is where the ribbon and the metal meet.<\/p>\n “So there\u2019s the medal, and there\u2019s the ribbon,” Johnson told reporters on Sunday. “And here\u2019s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal, and yeah, it came apart.”<\/p>\n Gold medals haven\u2019t been made of solid 24-karat gold since 1912. But they\u2019re still precious objects. Each gold medal (500 grams of sterling silver coated with 6 grams of pure gold) is worth roughly $2,400, according to the New York Times<\/a>. Each silver medal (500 grams of sterling silver) is worth nearly $1,400. Those figures have more than doubled since the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris due to the soaring cost of gold and silver.<\/p>\n Has this ever happened before?<\/p>\n Yes. Just six months after the 2024 Paris Olympics, People reported<\/a> that more than 100 medalists had already reached out to medal production company Monnaie de Paris to replace their prizes because they\u2019d started to \u201cdeteriorate.\u201d By February 2025, a total of 220 requests<\/a> had been made to replace Paris 2024 medals \u2014 roughly 4% of those awarded.<\/p>\n At the time, American skateboarder Nyjah Huston joked that his bronze medal looked like it \u201cwent to war<\/a>\u201d after mixing with the sweat on his skin for a few weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are apparently not as high quality as you would think,\u201d Huston said. \u201cI mean, look at that thing. It\u2019s looking rough. Even the front is starting to chip off a little.\u201d<\/p>\n The French mint said any damaged medals would be replaced and \u201cidentically engraved.\u201d<\/p>\n