Golden once again.
Oakland’s Alysa Liu has received a new gold medal after her original medallion came off the ribbon shortly after receiving it at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
Liu talked with NBC about the replacement and had fun in her comments about the experience. When asked what is her favorite thing about the hardware, Liu said “That it’s attached to the ribbon, maybe.”
After sharing a laugh with an NBC reporter, Liu complimented the design.
“I like the rings,” she said. “I think they look super cool. The design is pretty awesome.”
Liu is not the only Olympian who saw their medal fall apart not long after getting their hands on it.
The issue first went viral with U.S. alpine skier Breezy Johnson, who said her medal, the first of her Olympic career, broke hours later while celebrating the downhill gold triumph. The medal had separated from the ribbon.
“Don’t jump in them. I was jumping in excitement, and it broke,” Johnson said after her win Sunday. “I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not crazy broken, but a little broken.”
Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty ImagesAndrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images
Gold medalist USA’s Breezy Johnson shows her broken medal to the media following the Women’s Alpine Downhill Skiing at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. Picture date: Sunday Feb. 8, 2026.
“I may have set the record for shortest-lived Olympic medal,” Johnson said with a laugh. She eventually received a new medal as a replacement.
Additionally, TV footage in Germany captured the moment German biathlete Justus Strelow realized the bronze he’d won Sunday had fallen off the ribbon around his neck and dropped on the floor as he celebrated with his teammates.
Strelow tried to reattach the pieces during the celebrations, but to no success.
In a positive response, the Milan Cortina Olympics Committee said it had been working on a solution.
“We are aware of the situation, we have seen the images. Obviously we are trying to understand in detail if there is a problem,” Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer of the committee, said Monday.
“But obviously 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.”
It’s the second straight Olympics in which medal issues became a notable headline.
During the 2024 Paris Summer Games, over 100 athletes needed new medals to replace their originals after noticing how quickly the quality deteriorated.
Some athletes compared the deteriorated medals to “crocodile skin” or dating them back to 1924. The French mint eventually produced new ones but declined to say how many specifically.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.