Olympic Gold Medals Are Actually Falling Aside on the 2026 Video games

One jump. One crack. One viral moment after another.

Picture this: You just won an Olympic gold medal. You’re on top of the world. You do what literally any human being would do — jump up and down in pure, unbridled joy. And then your medal just… falls apart.

Now picture that happening to not one, not two, but multiple athletes on the exact same day.

Welcome to the most unintentionally hilarious storyline of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and the internet is absolutely eating it up.

Alysa Liu’s Medal Said ‘Peace Out’

Team USA figure skater Alysa Liu won gold in the team event on Feb. 8, and her celebration took an unexpected turn almost immediately. The 20-year-old revealed her medal broke pretty soon after receiving it — all because she dared to express happiness.

“I was just jumping up and down, as one does to celebrate, and it just dropped,” she told Overtime in an interview posted on Feb. 9. “It just literally fell off of the ribbon. It got very scratched up… pretty dented.”

Already, peak content. But Liu’s reaction to the whole ordeal is what truly sent this into viral territory. Because apparently, once your medal breaks, you don’t just get to pocket the loose piece and move on with your life. Oh no.

“I actually liked it when it was off the ribbon, but that’s not allowed,” Liu said. “I had to give it in. I was like, ‘Can’t you just fix this one?’ I’m attached. But it’s OK, I’m detached. Just like it was.”

Read that last line again. “I’m detached. Just like it was.” The comedic timing? Immaculate. The self-awareness? Off the charts. This is exactly the kind of moment that was made for TikTok, and sure enough, that’s exactly where it landed.

Breezy Johnson Had the Same Problem — and Immediately Warned Others

Here’s where the pattern gets genuinely funny. On that very same day — Feb. 8 — American skier Breezy Johnson won gold in the women’s downhill event.

And just like Liu, she learned the hard way that Olympic medals and celebratory jumping apparently do not mix.

“Do not jump in them. I was jumping in excitement and it broke,” Breezy told reporters in a post-ceremony interview as she displayed her broken medal on camera. “So there’s the medal, there’s the ribbon, and here’s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal. Yeah, it came apart.”

Despite the break, Johnson stayed remarkably chill about the whole thing. “I’m sure someone will fix it. It’s not crazy broken, but it’s a little broken.”

“Not crazy broken, but a little broken” is honestly a mood for 2026.

But the best part? Johnson didn’t just shrug it off — she immediately went into warning mode. Just minutes after her own medal mishap, she warned second-place finisher Emma Aicher not to jump while wearing her medal at a joint press conference. Johnson then showed her broken medal to reporters, breaking down the anatomy of the malfunction once more.

“So there’s the medal. And there’s the ribbon,” she said. “And here’s the little piece that is supposed to go into the ribbon to hold the medal, and yeah, it came apart.”

At this point, the broken medal show-and-tell was becoming its own event.

The German Biathlon Team Absolutely Won Social Media

If you thought the individual reactions were good, the German biathlon team took it to another level entirely.

That same day, the team posted a video to Instagram showing Justus Strelow stopping in the middle of celebrating his bronze with his team after his medal fell to the ground. The caption? Chef’s kiss.

“Are they not meant to be celebrated?”

Five words. Maximum impact. The kind of post that makes you stop scrolling, laugh out loud, and immediately hit share. The German biathlon team understood the assignment — if your medals are going to break on the world’s biggest stage, you might as well turn it into content.

So, What’s Actually Going On With These Medals?

Three different sports. Multiple athletes. All on the same day. At a certain point, it stops being bad luck and starts being a pattern — and Olympic officials noticed.

The issue was addressed by Andrea Francisi, the Milano Cortina 2026 Chief Games Operations Officer, at a press briefing on Feb. 9.

He confirmed officials are “fully aware of the situation” and looking into why the awards keep detaching from their ribbon, according to People.

“We’re going to pay particular attention to the medals and obviously this is something that [we want] everything [to] be perfect when the medal is handed over, because this is probably one of the most important moments for the athletes,” he said. “So we’re working on it.”

Fair enough. When athletes spend their entire lives training for a single moment, the least the hardware can do is survive a few celebratory hops.