In Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, alpine athlete Breezy Johnson extracted her Olympic gold medal from her right front coat pocket, separated from its ribbon.
“Avoid vigorous movements with them,” she advised reporters at her February 8 press conference following her downhill gold victory. “I was leaping with joy, and it came apart. Someone will undoubtedly repair it. It’s not severely damaged, just slightly.”
Johnson later confirmed on her Instagram story on February 12 that her medal had been mended. However, she is not the sole competitor to experience their Olympic medal—arguably the most significant athletic award—disassembling in this fashion.
Johnson represented the initial incident, subsequently joined by figure skater Alyssa Liu, Swedish cross-country athlete Ebba Andersson, Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam, and German biathlete Justus Strelow. Jackie Wiles, a bronze medalist in the alpine team combined event, also saw her medal detach, though her partner managed to fix it. Curlers Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin reported they are keeping their medals bedside for safekeeping.
The commemorative ribbons are crafted from a textile material, which is neither particularly substantial nor expansive. Awards from prior competitions featured rings or eyelets for threading the ribbon. Conversely, the medals for the 2026 Winter Olympics incorporate a channel at their upper edge. A metallic fastener, situated within a loop at the ribbon’s lower end, engages with this channel, thus joining the medal and ribbon.
Nonetheless, the fastener includes a spring-loaded component, which, upon the medal or ribbon being tugged or shaken, engages and causes the two parts to detach.
The Italian State Mint and Polygraphic Institute (IPZS) operates as an enterprise “fully held by the Ministry of Economy and Finance,” as stated on its official site, and holds the position of “a European frontrunner in secure printing solutions, digital identification, and currency production.” The IOC declared that IPZS would be responsible for creating the Olympic and Paralympic awards for Milano Cortina in 2025.
In response to an email inquiry concerning reports of athletes’ medals separating during the 2026 Games, IPZS communicated to USA TODAY, “The medals do not fracture. In a select number of cases, the anti-choking security mechanism triggers during celebratory moments, causing it to open.”
“Subsequent to notifications regarding difficulties impacting a restricted quantity of medals, the Organizing Committee promptly investigated the matter, collaborating intimately with the State Mint, the manufacturer of the awards.”
IPZS further informed USA TODAY that, similar to Johnson’s experience, competitors whose medals disassemble are “encouraged to send them back via the designated procedures for efficient repair and re-delivery.”
The corporation did not provide answers to USA TODAY’s inquiries regarding the prevalence of anti-choking mechanisms in Olympic medals, whether this feature was a requirement from the IOC or Italian legislation, if athletes are required to surrender their initial medals for replacement, the specific “solution” IPZS found for mending the medals, or the “methods” athletes are employing to have their damaged medals mended.
IPZS did disclose to USA TODAY that the protective fastener on Paralympic awards “will undergo improvements” in advance of those competitions, scheduled from March 6-15.
Contact USA TODAY Network sports journalist Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and find her on X @petitus25.
This report was initially published by USA TODAY: The reason behind the detachment of 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic medals and their ribbons?
