I am an absolute junkie for the Olympics, so I’ve been watching every event I can find time for with my Peacock subscription. And while I have my share of issues with the way the streamer is covering the Olympics, the events themselves have been full of everything I love. Exciting and beautiful competition, thrilling moments, Minions-themed figure skating routines, and emotional victory. Unfortunately, it seems that some of the winners are getting a little too excited when they win, and it's causing problems with their medals.
U.S. Athlete Breezy Johnson was certainly happy to win the Women’s Downhill event at the Winter Olympics this year, despite teammate Lindsey Vonn's terrible crash. However, in a press conference that’s going viral on Instagram, she revealed that in a moment of excitement, where she jumped up and down while wearing her medal, she broke the pin that holds the medal to the ribbon.
Winning a gold medal must be cool. Breaking a gold medal, not so much.
If this were a one-off situation where only one person had this problem, it would be an unfortunate accident. However, Breezy Johnson isn’t the only one who experienced a medal malfunction. In a video posted to TikTok, Alysa Liu, who won gold as part of the Team Figure Skating event, reveals that she also had her ribbon break while jumping up and down in celebration. In her case, however, it actually damaged the medal when it fell to the ground.
I feel for Alyssa Liu a bit here. Getting a new gold medal that isn’t scratched up is nice. But the one she was given on the podium is the one that she won. Understandably, she’d feel attached to it. The replacement just isn’t the same.
It’s interesting, however, that Liu says that having the medal off the ribbon is “not allowed.” It sounds like the Olympics want winners to be wearing their medals for press interviews or other public appearances, so not having it on the ribbon simply isn’t an option. Apparently, Breezy Johnson needs to get a new medal, too.
Clearly, the medals designed for the Milano Cortina games needed to go through some additional stress testing. I’m sure the gold medal is fairly heavy, but jumping up and down while wearing it is certainly something that I think we can expect Olympians to do. The piece that holds the ribbon and medal together just isn’t sturdy enough.
It's been a pretty Olympics so far, with plenty of Snoop Dogg and even the occasional Stargate joke. There’s still more than a week left in the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Perhaps some sort of fix can be made to the rest of the medals given out so they won’t have this problem.
