What’s with the faulty Olympic medals at the Winter Games? : NPR

Olympic medals are one of the most prestigious awards an athlete can receive. But medal winners at this year’s Winter Games in Milan are celebrating with caution.

American skier Breezy Johnson later said, “I was jumping in excitement and it broke.” earned his gold medal On Sunday. “Don’t jump into them,” he warned other medalists.

Johnson is one of several athletes who reported having their medals separated from the ribbon and in one case broken in half.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Olympic Organizing Committee spokesman Luca Casasa Said He knew that there were some problems with some of the medals. He said a solution had been identified and athletes with defective medals were encouraged to return them for repair.

“As a precaution, we are double-checking all the medals to make sure that when athletes win something that is so precious and important, their joy can truly be 360 ​​degrees,” Casasa said in Italian.

He did not say what the problem was or what the solution was.

This is not the first time that Olympic medals have needed to be replaced. Following the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, athletes raised concerns that their prizes, which included pieces of the famous Eiffel Tower, tarnish and corrode After the games.

Athletes report defective medals, but continue to celebrate their achievements

The exact moment when German biathlete Justus Strelow missed his medal was captured on camera. In a video that has gone viral, Strelo’s teammates are seen clapping as a gong is heard. The camera pans to Strelo, who picks up his medal and tries to reattach it to its ribbon – causing an awkward interruption to the celebration.

In a video posted on InstagramTeam USA figure skater Alyssa Liu shows off her ribbon-less medal with the words, “My medal doesn’t need a ribbon.”

While Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson reported that most medal snatchings were limited to strap issues. Swedish broadcaster SVT That his silver broke into two pieces after falling in the snow.

American skier Johnson said that a small rectangular piece – which was supposed to hold the medal and ribbon together – broke, rendering his medal unwearable.

“I’m sure someone will fix it. It’s not crazy broken but a little broken,” he said Sunday.

A few days later Johnson told reuters That she has received a replacement medal, but would prefer to have her original medal back, given that her new medal has not yet been engraved.

“They couldn’t fix it so they gave me a new one,” he said. “Though I’m really curious, because then I think they were able to fix some of the later ones. So now I’m wondering if maybe I’ll be able to fix the old one back.”

Design flaw or manufacturing fault?

This year’s medals are like two halves coming together. In a video, Raffaella Panini, who serves as director of brand, identity and look at this year’s Winter Games, Said The aim was to show how every victory is the result of the athlete as well as their family, coaches and team of coaches.

reuters informed The medals have a safety clip, which is intended to break when pulled forcefully to prevent the ribbon from getting stuck. The Milano-Cortina press team did not respond to an email request for comment regarding the clip function of the medals.

Doug McIndoe, editor of The MCA Advisory, the magazine of Medal Collectors of America, said, “It doesn’t seem to be a case of all metals, it’s a case of just some of them, which leads me to believe that – just guessing – there is some type of manufacturing error.”

According to McIndoe, when cast metals are poured into molds and hardened, this can cause the metal to shrink.

“It’s possible that the hole where that clip goes is a little bit too big, just a few millimeters or less, and it’s not securing that clip properly,” he said.

How to make medals wearable is an age-old question, he said, adding that punching a hole or incorporating a mold into the design to thread the ribbon through were historically unpopular methods. There were no Olympic medals until the 1960s. started wearing Around the neck of athletes.

“By Roman times, they were something you held in your hands and enjoyed and a lot of them were issued in boxes,” McIndoe said.

Despite design issues, this year’s gold and silver medals are the highest valued in a century. This is because the prices of these precious metals have increased in the last year. many factors According to precious metals expert Peter Krauth, metals are contributing to the record prices, but the main driver is President Trump’s tariffs, which are creating economic uncertainty in markets around the world.

Although each gold medal contains only 500 grams of actual gold (the rest is made of silver) Krauth estimates their current value at about $2,300 – double their value during the Summer Olympics in July 2024. A silver medal is currently worth about $1,400 — about three times the value two years ago, he said.

Krauth believes gold and silver prices will remain high in the coming years, even leading up to the 2028 Summer Olympics. But he said the real value of Olympic medals comes from the athletic achievement behind them.

“The sentimental value of a medal is far more valuable than the metal in the medal,” he said.