After winning gold at the Winter Olympics, skier Breezy Johnson did what champions do — she jumped for joy.
And her medal fell off.
She later joked, “Don’t jump in them… I was jumping in excitement and it broke,” adding that it was “not, like, crazy broken. But, a little broken.” Other athletes experienced similar ribbon failures during their celebrations.
In this episode of Mistake of the Week, Mark Graban looks at what happens when a system fails during the very moment it’s designed to support — and why it’s encouraging that Olympic officials acknowledged the problem instead of blaming the athletes.
Because if your medal can’t survive celebration… what exactly was it tested for?
This episode explores:
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Designing for real human behavior (including joy)
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The importance of testing under realistic conditions
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Why admitting a flaw beats assigning blame
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What organizations can learn from a broken ribbon
My Favorite Mistake: Learning Without Blame in Business and Leadership