The 2026 medals, designed to resemble "discs of ice," are composed of two halves joined through the Olympic symbols. Investigators and athletes have proposed several theories for the defects:
The chemical composition of a medal dictates its vulnerability. medal crack
Similarly, high school academic decathlon medals (usually cheap pot metal, a zinc-aluminum alloy) crack constantly. These are made via die-casting, which introduces internal shrinkage cracks that snap under the weight of a neck ribbon. The 2026 medals, designed to resemble "discs of
There are three primary types of medal cracks: The 2026 medals
: Acta Materialia (Published by Elsevier/ScienceDirect).