Christina Carreira faces Olympic panic after FedEx loses her ice dancing costumes days before Milan Winter Games

Christina Carreira ran into a nightmare situation only days before the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. One of her most important competition costumes went missing during shipping, leaving her without it right before the biggest event of her career. The costumes were being shipped to Italy through FedEx, but they never arrived as planned. As the days passed, there were no clear answers from the company. Carreira, who is set to compete with her ice dance partner Anthony Ponomarenko, was already traveling to Italy while the costume was still missing.

The situation quickly turned stressful. Olympic ice dancing is not something you can prepare for at the last minute. Costumes are custom-made, carefully fitted, and impossible to replace quickly. With competition week approaching, the delay caused panic across the team. The issue became public after the costume designer spoke out, drawing attention from officials across the skating world.

Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko’s Olympic plans hit by shipping chaos

The missing costume was designed by Lisa McKinnon, who shared her frustration on Instagram on January 29. She tagged FedEx directly and wrote, “It’s like pulling teeth to get answers from calling FedEx!!! We’re heartbroken and so incredibly disappointed with you! We really really need you to come through for us right now!!”

McKinnon explained that the package had been stuck at the FedEx facility in Memphis, Tennessee, since January 26. While severe winter weather affected parts of the eastern United States between January 24 and 26, she made it clear that weather was not the biggest concern. She wrote, “It is not however the weather delay that’s the main issue for us in this situation, it’s the fact that they don’t know where the package is.”

The costumes were shipped on January 24 and were expected to arrive in Italy within two days. That never happened. McKinnon added, “It’s now Thursday and the skaters are literally on their way to the Olympics in Milan without the costume!!!”

Carreira also shared her frustration, writing on Instagram, “We’ve been calling since Monday, everyone at FedEx has been extremely unhelpful. My package has been stuck in Memphis since Monday.” FedEx later responded publicly, saying, “We want to help out and are looking into this!”

After days of stress, help finally came through the skating community. McKinnon explained that a connection through U.S. Figure Skating led to someone at the Memphis hub physically locating the package. Late that night, the costume was found. Carreira shared the update herself, posting, “They found it,” along with a crying emoji.



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