Former Olympic champion László Csongrádi is taking extraordinary steps to recover his stolen gold medal.
The 1988 Summer Olympics sabre champion awoke on September 10 to discover his prized possession missing. He is now offering to pass it on to the thief in his will if it is returned.
"For two weeks, I can't calm down and be happy, because everything reminds me of my stolen Olympic gold medal," Csongrádi told Hungary's Sportal website. "I would give everything to the culprit, just bring back the worthless object that means nothing to him. Drop it in the mailbox, and if you want, I won't leave it to a museum in my will, I'll bequeath it to him."
Csongrádi, 65, recounted the experience, saying he was sleeping when the thief broke in to his home and acquired the treasure.
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He said the medal was securely placed in a cupboard "not visible" and "wrapped several times." The burglar took a long time to shuffle through different drawers and doors and only left when Csongrádi yelled at home.
"I don't know what you can do with something that's a simple metal coating, so it's not worth much in these markets. I just want my gold medal back," Csongrádi added. "He could have taken other important things, but for some reason that was all he was interested in."
The news was first dropped by Tamás Kovács, the former national team captain of the fencing team, in Hungarian on his Facebook page.
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Translated to English, the post read: "Dear FB friends! Late on Tuesday night, the house of Olympic champion swordsman László Csongrádi was broken into and, among other things, the thief stole the Seoul Olympic gold medal, which has the words 'Men's saber team' engraved on its rim! I ask my Facebook friends to share it, in case the news reaches medal collectors, market vendors, etc., because it is likely that he wants to exchange the stolen medal for money, which only means a lot to Laci Csongrádi, who contributed to the Olympic gold medal with her excellent fencing, when They beat the Soviet national team 4:8. The police started an investigation!!! Thanks in advance for sharing!”
The post has since been taken down.
Csongrádi won the gold medal in the team sabre competition at the 1988 in Seoul alongside György Nébald, Bence Szabó, Imre Bujdosó and Imre Gedővári
