02/09/26 05:34:00
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02/09 05:32 CST 'Don't jump in them': Olympic athletes' medals break during
celebrations
'Don't jump in them': Olympic athletes' medals break during celebrations
By JAMES ELLINGWORTH
AP Sports Writer
MILAN (AP) --- Handle with care. That's the message from gold medalist Breezy
Johnson at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics after she and other athletes found
their medals broke within hours.
Olympic organizers are investigating with "maximum attention" after a spate of
medals have fallen off their ribbons during celebrations on the opening weekend
of the Games.
"Don't jump in them. I was jumping in excitement, and it broke," women's
downhill ski gold medalist Johnson said after her win Sunday. "I'm sure
somebody will fix it. It's not crazy broken, but a little broken."
TV footage broadcast in Germany captured the moment biathlete Justus Strelow
realized the mixed relay bronze he'd won Sunday had fallen off the ribbon
around his neck and clattered to the floor as he danced along to a song with
teammates.
His German teammates cheered as Strelow tried without success to reattach the
medal before realizing a smaller piece, seemingly the clasp, had broken off and
was still on the floor.
U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu posted a clip on social media of her team event
gold medal, detached from its official ribbon.
"My medal don't need the ribbon," Liu wrote early Monday.
Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the Milan Cortina
organizing committee, said it was working on a solution.
"We are aware of the situation, we have seen the images. Obviously we are
trying to understand in detail if there is a problem," Francisi 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."
It isn't the first time the quality of Olympic medals has come under scrutiny.
Following the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, some medals had to be replaced
after athletes complained they were starting to tarnish or corrode, giving them
a mottled look likened to crocodile skin.
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AP Sports Writer Daniella Matar in Milan and Andrew Dampf in Cortina D'Ampezzo,
Italy, contributed to this report.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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