Olympians Are Speaking Out After Their Medals Keep Breaking—And It's A Big Yikes

Olympians might have the incredible honor of representing their countries in the Summer and Winter Games, and they might even receive an impressive amount of gear from a wide variety of luxury brands, but there's one very important thing they all deserve.

If they win a medal, their medal should be able to be worn on their Olympic lanyard without breaking.

In this year's Winter Games, however, that seems to have been too much to ask as multiple Olympians have already accidentally dropped their medals to the floor after they broke away from their lanyards, causing them to be dented and cracked shortly after winning them.

Alyssa Liu, who won gold for Team USA in independent figure skating, proudly shared her gold medal in a TikTok video. She looked proud and happy, but she showed the medal and the lanyard had already parted ways.

You can watch that video here:

Moments later, she shared another video, which was simply a photograph, quipping:

"My medal don't need the ribbon."

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Fellow TikTokers were shocked and upset, and some deflected with humor.

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Fellow Team USA figure skater Amber Glenn even reminded Liu of the warning they'd received about the Olympic medals.

@frigouscigous/TikTok

And Liu is far from the only Olympian that this has happened to.

In fact, German biathlete Justus Strewlow was celebrating with his team, and just lightly moving in place caused his bronze medal to break away from the lanyard and fall to the floor among the celebratory decorations.

Speed skater Jutta Leerdam, who won a gold medal for the Netherlands team, was holding the medal in her hand when the mechanism on the back of the medal broke, releasing it from the lanyard.

Even Team USA's alpine skier Breezy Johnson opened up during an interview, warning others to not jump in celebration while wearing their medals, unless they wanted to risk them cracking. Johnson recalled jumping in place in celebration, and her medal broke free from the lanyard and cracked when it landed on the ground.

While she was confident that it could be repaired, she also believed it was a problem that the medals were so easy to break.

And Johnson had a point.

From the look of it, the lanyard is a standard lanyard with a thin, medal clip at the end that loops through a mechanism at the back of the medal. But if the mechanism on the back of the medal is not well-attached or sturdy enough on its own, it won't be able to handle the weight of the medal, let alone any celebratory movement.

Olympic spokesperson Luca Cassasa came forward, claiming that a solution has been discovered.

"Following reports of issues affecting a small number of medals, the organising committee immediately reviewed the matter, working closely with the State Mint, which produced the medals."

"A solution has been identified, and a targeted fix has been put in place."

"Athletes whose medals have been affected are encouraged to return them through the appropriate channels so that they can be promptly repaired and returned."

With how quickly and easily these Olympians' medals broke, it seems like a quick round of product testing would have revealed the problem before they were given to the winners.