CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Breezy Johnson better hang onto her Olympic gold medal.
Literally.
Johnson was jumping up and down, celebrating her Olympic downhill title Sunday, Feb. 8, when her gold medal came off its ribbon. Athletes’ medals often get damaged or need to be repaired, but it’s rare for it to happen this quickly.
‘It’s definitely heavy. Heavier than I expected,’ Johnson said. ‘I think that’s maybe why it broke.’
There’s a groove at the top of the medal where the ribbon is supposed to fit into, but the piece that attaches the two broke.
‘It’s not crazy broken, but it’s a little broken,’ Johnson said.
She stuffed the gold medal in her pocket while she did her rounds of interviews following the race. When someone asked if she was going to get it fixed, she joked that no media member had offered.
‘I haven’t really been anywhere else,’ Johnson said. ‘I assume somebody will fix it.’
Given how crafty Johnson is, maybe she’ll come up with a fix herself.
Johnson has a tradition of knitting a new headband for herself before each race. She finished her one for the downhill on Saturday night, and was still tucking in some stray yarns before the race.
Johnson plans to auction the headband — light blue with red and white diagonal stripes — off at some point to raise money for charity. Asked if she might wear it again since it has good luck attached to it, Johnson was aghast.
‘I have to have a new one,’ she said. ‘I know that even if I did well in one of them, if I bring it back, it’s not lucky anymore.’
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.