The national mint of Italy is offering to repair defective medal fixings for athletes, organizers of the Milan Cortina Olympics said Tuesday at a news conference.
Several Olympians, including Team USA gold medalists Breezy Johnson (women’s downhill skiing) and Alysa Liu (team figure skating) and the bronze medal-winning German biathlon team, have had their medals detach from their ribbons.
Johnson noticed her medal breaking as she jumped in celebration. “Don’t jump in them,” she said. “I was jumping in excitement, and it broke. It’s not like crazy broken, but a little broken.” The German biathlon team posted a video on social media showing Justus Strelow’s medal falling off the ribbon.
“A limited number of medals have had a few problems,” Olympic organizing committee spokesperson Luca Casassa said in comments translated from Italian. “The organizing committee has been working closely with the Italian mint, who are responsible for the medals. A solution has been identified and athletes who have medals are invited to give them back so they can be repaired.
“As a precaution,” Casassa added, “we are recalling some of the medals to ensure all athletes’ joy (upon winning a medal) can be ‘360 degrees.’”
However, some athletes who had issues with their medals from earlier in the Games, such as Johnson, received replacements instead of getting their original medal fixed. Johnson told Reuters on Wednesday that there were slight differences in her replacement and she would prefer to have the original one repaired and returned to her.
“The new one has not yet been engraved, and obviously it’s not the one that I got originally,” she said. “… I’m actually curious, because then I think some of the later ones they were able to fix. So now I’m kind of wondering if maybe I can get the old one back fixed.”
Johnson’s U.S. teammate Jackie Wiles, who won bronze in the women’s Alpine combined event, was also given a replacement after she, too, jumped enthusiastically after her win, breaking her medal.