Athletes are used to breaking records, but not necessarily medals.
But gold medalist skier Breezy Johnson said her medal broke off the ribbon after she received her honors.
“Don’t jump in them. I was jumping in excitement, and it broke,” the women’s downhill ski champion warned, according to The Associated Press. “I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not crazy broken, but a little broken.”
“So there’s the medal. And there’s the ribbon,” she told reporters, according to People magazine. “And here’s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal, and yeah, it came apart.
She was the first athlete to win a medal for the U.S.
Johnson is not alone in saying that her medal broke. Others, too, have reported problems, so the Olympic organizers are investigating with “maximum attention” after the medals fell off their ribbons.
U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu posted on social media, “My medal don’t need the ribbon,” after she won the gold as part of the team event.
Biathlete Justus Strelow’s bronze medal fell off the ribbon and hit the floor as he danced with his teammates.
He had tried to reattach it to the ribbon but a clasp broke off and was on the floor.
“We are aware of the situation. We have seen the images. Obviously we are trying to understand in detail if there is a problem,” chief games operations officer Andrea Francisi said, according to the AP. “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.”
The award features a half with a textured surface and a half with a smooth surface. The medals are called “two halves, one whole” and are “Celebrating the power of differences — two unique halves coming together to create a bold, unified statement,” according to the Olympic website.