The 2026 Winter Olympics are underway, but trouble has already emerged as both Alysa Liu and Breezy Johnson saw their gold medals fall off the ribbons, and the latter’s medal even broke a little. Johnson won the first gold for Team USA in alpine skiing, and Liu won the top podium finish in the team figure skating event.
The couple of incidents left aside, Team USA came as the largest U.S. Winter Olympic team in history, featuring 117 men and 115 women across 16 sports.
Breezy Johnson and Alysa Liu Raise Concern About Medals Breaking at the 2026 Winter Games
Johnson won her first-ever Super-G podium in Crans-Montana in the 2025-26 World Cup season, coming off a back injury. The 30-year-old established her footing for the Olympics ahead, and graced the line-up on the Tofane course as one of the title contenders in speed alongside Lindsey Vonn. She pushed off the gate in sixth and completed the 1.6-mile-long course in the fastest time.
She broke down in tears, raised her arms in celebration, and jumped in joy on the podium with the medal around her neck. That’s when the groove that attaches the ribbon broke into two. Later, in a press conference, she said:
“I was jumping in excitement, and it broke… I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not a crazy broken, it’s a little broken.”
In another Instagram reel, figure skater Liu, who finished second behind Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto in the women’s short program to help Team USA secure team gold, also showed the condition of her medal after it came off the ribbon. Despite that, she didn’t let it dampen her spirits, taking it in a positive light and captioning:
“My medal don’t need the ribbon.”
She will next be in contention in the women’s short program on Feb. 17, followed by the free skate on Feb. 19.
Johnson may find the fix to her medal herself as she has been super crafty in more ways than one. The American skier follows a tradition of knitting special headbands before her races and created a US-themed one, featuring red-and-white diagonal stripes on blue, ahead of the downhill event.
In a later interview, she was asked whether she would reuse it because of the good luck it brought her in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The world medalist dismissed the idea, making it clear that she would need a new one, as the current one would no longer bring her any luck. Johnson was out of action for 14 months following a USADA suspension for whereabouts failure.
