What should have been one of the most memorable moments of her athletic career turned into something far more shocking for Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam. The 27-year-old had just claimed her first Olympic gold medal at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, setting a new Olympic record of 1 minute and 12.31 seconds in the 1000-meter event. While filming a video to share the joy with her millions of followers on social media, the unthinkable happened. Her brand-new gold medal snapped right in her hands.
“I wanted to show you this because this is unbelievable! I am an Olympic champion. This is real,” Leerdam said through tears of joy, moments before the medal cracked in two and turned the celebration into a moment of disbelief.
Leerdam’s experience, as startling as it was, turned out to be far from a one-off incident. American alpine skier Breezy Johnson also found her gold medal broken, and German biathlete Justus Strelow’s medal cracked after it slipped from his hands during post-victory celebrations. Swedish cross-country skier Ebba Andersson suffered the same fate. With cases piling up, the public and the press began demanding answers from the Games’ organizers.
Andrea Francisi, chief operating officer of the Milan Cortina 2026 Games, addressed the growing concern directly. “We are fully aware of the situation. We are investigating what exactly the problem is. We will devote maximum attention to the medals so that everything is perfect, because this is one of the most important things for the athletes,” Francisi said. No further technical explanation has been provided publicly as to what is causing the medals to be so fragile.
@juttaleerdam I CAN’t BELIEVE IT!!! & SKATER AN OLYMPIC RECORD!!!
♬ origineel geluid – Jutta Leerdam
One thing that might surprise many fans is that Olympic gold medals are not made of solid gold and haven’t been for over a century. The gold medals at these Winter Games are primarily composed of high-purity silver, weighing approximately 17.9 ounces total, with only about 0.21 ounces of actual gold used as a surface coating. That gold content, at the gold price of $160 per gram recorded on the opening day of February 6th, amounts to roughly $960 worth of gold. The silver content, priced at about $2.50 per gram, adds approximately $1,250 in material value, bringing each gold medal’s total raw material value to around $2,210. A total of 245 gold medals will be awarded across 116 Olympic and 79 Paralympic disciplines throughout the Games.
Silver medals are struck from 17.6 ounces of 99% pure silver, while bronze medals consist of 14.8 ounces of copper, with organizers not specifying the purity grade of the copper used. The medals measure approximately 3.15 inches in diameter and about 0.39 inches in thickness. Their design was conceived by the organizing committee in Italy and is meant to represent “the pinnacle of the athlete’s journey and all those who supported them along the way,” according to officials, featuring a visual style that makes the medal appear as though it is formed from two offset halves pressed together.
The tradition of Olympic medals as we know them today dates back to the 1896 Athens Games, though gold medals made entirely of solid gold were last awarded at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Since then, the International Olympic Committee has required only that gold medals be made of silver plated with at least 6 grams of gold, a standard that has remained consistent across modern Games. The host city’s organizing committee typically has creative freedom over the design, shape, and materials beyond those minimum requirements, which is why each Games produces a distinct and unique medal. Winter Olympic medals also tend to incorporate local cultural symbols or landscape references, making them collectible artifacts beyond their athletic significance.
The incident has reignited conversations about quality control in the production of Olympic medals, which are meant to be lasting symbols of the highest achievement in sport, and it raises the question of whether stricter durability testing should become a formal part of the process going forward. Share your thoughts on the cracking medals and what you think the organizers should do about it in the comments.
