That same day, the German biathlon team posted a video to Instagram, showing Justus Strelow halting his celebrations with his teammates after his bronze medal fell to the ground. Alongside the viral clip, the team poked fun at the faulty medals, writing, “Are they not meant to be celebrated?”
The ongoing issue was ultimately 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.”
Aside from the prize mishaps, there’s been plenty of big moments to come out of the 2026 Olympics. Keep reading for more highlights from the Winter Games.
Here you can find the original article; the photos and images used in our article also come from this source. We are not their authors; they have been used solely for informational purposes with proper attribution to their original source.
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INTENT: informational
ENTITIES_PRIMARY: German biathlon team, Justus Strelow, Andrea Francisi, Milano Cortina 2026
ENTITIES_RELATED: Olympics, medals, awards
PHRASES_CORE: German biathlon team video, Justus Strelow bronze medal, Andrea Francisi statement, Milano Cortina 2026
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PAA_QUERIES: What happened with Justus Strelow’s medal? Who addressed the medal issue? What are highlights from the 2026 Olympics? Why are medals detaching?
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–>
