Winter Olympic stars on lookout for Tiger Woods’ tooth a decade on from mysterious incident

Stars of the 2026 Winter Olympics will be on the lookout for Tiger Woods’ missing tooth at Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The ski resort in the Italian town of Dolomites will host this edition of the Winter Olympics.

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And one lucky competitor could find the 15-time major winner’s tooth.

In January 2015, the American was spotted at this very ski resort to support his then-girlfriend Lindsey Vonn.

During the event, Woods was spotted wearing a skull face mask and sunglasses on at all times.

But there was one occasion when he pulled the mask down and was seen with a gap in his teeth, with one of his front teeth missing.

This started to lead to questions from the gathered media about what happened.

It turned out they were directly involved, or so Woods claimed.

In a statement from Woods’ media manager Mark Steinberg, the incident was revealed that left the legendary golfer short of a full smile.

The statement said: “A media member with a shoulder-mounted video camera pushed and surged toward the stage, turned and hit Tiger Woods in the mouth. Woods’ tooth was knocked out by the incident.”

But this story was disputed by a member of staff who accompanied Woods for the journey in which this incident supposedly happened.

Nicola Colli, the secretary general of the race organising committee, was also there, and afterwards told the media that the story from Woods’ camp was false.

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She said: “I was among those who escorted him from the tent to the snowmobile and there was no such incident.

“When he arrived he asked for more security and we rounded up police to look after both him and Lindsey.”

To support Coli’s side of the story, there was also no evidence of Woods suffering from any bruising to his face, which would have happened if he’d been hit by a camera.

But Vonn also supported the claim from Woods with a post on social media.

The post was a picture of the duo smiling, though, Woods’ lips remained firmly sealed.

Alongside the image, there was a post that said: “So happy that Tiger surprised me by coming to my race in Italy yesterday, watching me break the World Cup win record! I feel terrible that his tooth got knocked out though.

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“When he was in the finish area a camera man accidentally knocked into him and took out his front tooth. He was still in great spirits though and didn’t complain once or ask for any special assistance or security. We were both just happy to share the moment together.”

In the end, it’s never been discovered what actually happened, but it is possible his tooth is still there in the snow just waiting to be discovered…

Vonn overshadowed

The whole tooth incident took the limelight away from Vonn.

At the time, she broke a 35-year-old World Cup record, and Woods took all of the attention away from her.

The 41-year-old recently reflected on this, though, she didn’t reveal what had happened to Woods’ tooth.

She said: “I was disappointed that that was the main storyline.

“It definitely distracted from the fact that I broke the win record. … Yeah, that was an interesting debacle.”

But she’s back on the course this year competing in her fifth Winter Olympics.

Her record at this course is incredible as well, winning 12 times – more than anyone else.