Italy's Franzoni posts top time in downhill portion of team combined as event makes Olympic debut

BORMIO, Italy (AP) — Italian ski racer Giovanni Franzoni posted the fastest time in the downhill portion of the team combined Monday, an event that's making its Olympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games.

His teammate Alex Vinatzer will take the slalom course later in the day with a slim lead over a trio of Swiss teams. The team combined event involves one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom, with their two times added up to determine the final results.

In second place is Swiss-3, with Alexis Monney racing the downhill and Daniel Yule set to take over for the slalom. They trail by 0.17 seconds. Four-time overall World Cup champion Marco Odermatt has the Swiss-1 team in third place. He is teaming up with technical specialist Loic Meillard. They are 0.28 seconds back.

A third Swiss team — Olympic downhill champion Franjo von Allmen paring with Tanguy Nef — sits in fourth.

Five teams are a second or less out of the lead.

The Swiss swept gold, silver and bronze in the men's team combined at the world championships last February. The nation made some changes, though, with Odermatt uniting with Meillard. At worlds, Meillard paired with von Allmen to win gold.

Franzoni was the silver medalist in the downhill over the weekend. Another Italian team is in fifth after the downhill run by bronze medalist Dominik Paris. He's paired with Tommaso Sala.

In the women's event slated for Tuesday, Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson will pair up. They combined to win the event at worlds. Johnson is the reigning Olympic champion after winning Sunday.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Switzerland's Alexis Monney celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski men's downhill portion of a team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski men's downhill portion of a team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Italy's Giovanni Franzoni speeds down the course of an alpine ski men's downhill portion of a team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Italy's Giovanni Franzoni celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski men's downhill portion of a team combined race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

MILAN (AP) — Handle with care. That's the message from gold medalist Breezy Johnson at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics after she and other athletes found their medals broke within hours.

Olympic organizers are investigating with “maximum attention” after a spate of medals have fallen off their ribbons during celebrations on the opening weekend of the Games.

“Don’t jump in them. I was jumping in excitement, and it broke," women's downhill ski gold medalist Johnson said after her win Sunday. "I’m sure somebody will fix it. It’s not crazy broken, but a little broken.”

TV footage broadcast in Germany captured the moment biathlete Justus Strelow realized the mixed relay bronze he'd won Sunday had fallen off the ribbon around his neck and clattered to the floor as he danced along to a song with teammates.

His German teammates cheered as Strelow tried without success to reattach the medal before realizing a smaller piece, seemingly the clasp, had broken off and was still on the floor.

U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu posted a clip on social media of her team event gold medal, detached from its official ribbon.

“My medal don’t need the ribbon,” Liu wrote early Monday.

Andrea Francisi, the chief games operations officer for the Milan Cortina organizing committee, said it was 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,” Francisi 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 isn't the first time the quality of Olympic medals has come under scrutiny.

Following the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, some medals had to be replaced after athletes complained they were starting to tarnish or corrode, giving them a mottled look likened to crocodile skin.

AP Sports Writer Daniella Matar in Milan and Andrew Dampf in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, contributed to this report.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Germany's Franziska Preuss, from left, Vanessa Voigt, Philipp Nawrath and Justus Strelow celebrate bronze on the podium for the 4X6-kilometer mixed relay biathlon race at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Anterselva, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Alysa Liu of the United States celebrate with the crowd after Team USA wins gold in the figure skating team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

United States' Breezy Johnson shows her gold medal in the alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)