First ‘Team LGBTQ+’ medallist at 2026 Winter Olympics breaks gold medal immediately
Breezy Johnson from ‘Team LGBTQ+’ (Al Bello/Getty Images)
The first Olympian to win gold for ‘Team LGBTQ+’ at the 2026 Winter Olympics has found out that a gold medal is more fragile than expected.
On Sunday (8 February) Breezy Johnson won gold for the women’s downhill alpine skiing race. The bisexual athlete was soon followed by the figure skater Amber Glenn, who also won gold. The two are among a number of LGBTQ+ athletes competing at the Milano Cortina games.
As Johnson celebrated her win, the gold medal came apart from the ribbon holding it around her neck. As reported by USA Today, Johnson said: “It’s definitely heavy. Heavier than I expected. I think that’s maybe why it broke.”
She also said: “It’s not crazy broken, but it’s a little broken.” She explained that the part where the ribbon attaches to the medal had broken. “I assume somebody will fix it,” Johnson added. In the meantime, her advice for other athletes? “Don’t jump in them.”
Keely Cashman, Johnson’s teammate, wasn’t “super surprised” given the weight of the medal. “I was like, ‘That better be a hefty string or whatever was holding it,'” Cashman said.
And Johnson isn’t the only athlete to have medal issues. US figure skating team member Alysa Liu had a similar issue with her gold medal. Germany’s Justus Strelow’s bronze medal has also broken.
Following these incidents, Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the Milan Cortina organising committee, said they’re “aware of the situation,” as reported by NBC.
Francisi added: “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.”
Elsewhere in the games, out athletes Paul Poirier, Luke Gibson, and Kevin Aymoz have been competing in their respective ice skating events. All three have gone somewhat viral for their routines set to iconic tunes such as RuPaul’s “Supermodel”, the Spice Girls and Lady Gaga’s “Judas.”
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