© picture alliance / newscom | Richard Ellis
The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics are facing an unexpected problem that threatens to overshadow the highlight for the athletes: the ceremony. Several medals have come loose from the ribbon with which they hang around the neck and end up on the ground during the celebrations or after the ceremony.
Reports from the athletes
One of the first to bring out the incident was American Breezy Johnson, gold in the women's downhill in Cortina d'Ampezzo. "I was jumping for joy and then it broke. I'm sure someone will fix it, it's not completely broken," the skier explained to TNT Sports. In doing so, she showed the medal she had had to put in her pocket to avoid losing it.
As various videos circulating on social media show, it was not an isolated incident.
Italy's Lucia Dalmasso, bronze on the parallel giant slalom, recounted, "I had fixed it, but then it fell again." Similar problems were reported by Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson (silver in the cross-country), U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu (gold with the team) and German biathlete Justus Strelow (bronze in the mixed relay), who wrote on social media, "What's going on with these medals?"
Response from the Milan-Cortina Foundation
During the daily press conference at the Main Media Center in Milan, Andrea Francisi, Chief Games Operations Officer of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, confirmed he was aware of the situation. "We have seen that some medals were broken, we have looked at the images and we are trying to understand in detail if there is a problem. "Since the medal is the crowning and dream of every athlete, we're paying a lot of attention to it," Francisi explained to reporters.
The next day, Foundation spokesman Luca Casassa gave an update during the Daily Media Briefing. According to reports from ANSA, the organizing committee "immediately investigated the issue thoroughly, working closely with the National Mint, which is responsible for producing the medals. A solution was found and a targeted intervention was implemented. Athletes whose medals were affected are invited to submit them through the appropriate channels so that they can be repaired and returned as soon as possible."
Technical problem and previous cases
The defect involves the attachment mechanism between medal and ribbon. The analyses show that the problem is not the metal of the medal itself, but the choke-safe mechanism of the ribbon. That mechanism is prescribed by international safety standards and is designed to release in the event of excessive tensile force. In some cases, the system has also been triggered during the normal celebration of a top performance.
The incident calls to mind the Paris 2024 Olympics, when hundreds of medals were taken and replaced because of oxidation and wear problems. In that case, the defects were much more serious and related to the paint finish and materials used. In Milan-Cortina, by contrast, the problem appears to be limited to the fastening system.
The Foundation has confirmed its commitment to ensuring that the medals "meet the highest quality standards" and guarantees that all damaged medals will be repaired and returned to their rightful owners.
(©GreenMe.it 2026 / Managing Editor: Selma Keshkire - The Press Junction /Picture: picture alliance / newscom | Richard Ellis)