An Antiques Roadshow guest was left gasping over the price of her grandmother’s Olympic gold medal.
Julia, the guest on the beloved BBC show, brought in a collection of her grandmother’s swimming awards. The rare haul included a century-old gold medal from the Paris Olympics in 1924.
Her grandmother was swimmer Lucy Morton, who won gold in the 200m breaststroke race at the games. She also became the first British woman to win Olympic gold for swimming in an individual event.
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Antiques expert Adam Schoon, who was impressed by the collection, asked: “Swimming medals, swimming badges and a photograph, who is it?”. Julia replied: “That’s my grandmother Lucy Morton, swimming, she started swimming when she was about aged 10.”
(Image: BBC)
“What happened was her dad said ‘you’re too much of a dunce at school, you don’t seem to be doing very well’ and he decided ‘let’s try swimming’.”
Asked if she’d inherited her grandmother’s swimming genes, Julia said she could “swim a length”, which would be enough to “save my life”. Moving on, Adam said: “Back to her remarkable rise, because it’s covered in gold medals.
(Image: BBC)
“I noticed that there’s a number of medallions around here which she would have won for, I presume, county races, national races. She’s setting world records. All of these are 15-carat gold but of course, all these smaller medals build up to really this one here.”
The expert referred to the Olympic gold medal. Sharing the remarkable story behind her grandmother’s win, Julia said: “In 1923, they actually became very interested in her and they asked her to start swimming in preparation for the 1924 Paris Olympics.
(Image: BBC)
“She trained and she went to Paris in 1924. She wasn’t expected to win or anything. Unfortunately, some of the Americans had got some sort of bug from what I heard.
“She made the final race in breaststroke 200m and everyone was apparently cheering, she got to the end and she had a chaperone and the chaperone said ‘You’ve won! ‘
“Pulled her out of the pool, put her bathrobe on. She was actually the first female swimmer to win a gold medal in swimming for Great Britain. I’m really proud of her.
(Image: BBC)
“At that age, that time, females weren’t doing anything like that and to have actually swam at the age of 27, I think it was quite old back then.”
Blown away by the swimmer, Schoon said: “Well you’re right to be proud, she was an incredible woman. Back to the medal, it’s got her name on the rim, it is the gold but it’s made of silver, silver gilt.
“It was designed in Paris by a man called Andre Rivaud, it was made in the Paris mint and there were only 304 made as far as I know.” Schoon revealed the medal would be worth £15k.
Julia, who was shocked at the huge value, was heard gasping as Schoon continued: “Just for that. And the fact you’ve got all these gold medals and more here, another £15,000, but altogether, it just adds up to the most extraordinary record of the most incredible woman.”
Julia explained Morton went on to coach the Olympic team and helped other swimmers around the country. She added: “She just loved it [swimming]. It was her life.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
