Jordyn Poulter, setter for U.S. Women's Volleyball team, had gold medal stolen from car
Olympian Jordyn Poulter, a star setter for the U.S. Women's Volleyball team, told reporters Friday that her gold medal was stolen earlier in the week.
"We live this crazy life of living in so many different places. So many of us play overseas and then go home and then come out here and train, so I keep the medal kind of on me because friends and family I haven't seen in a while or just people of the community who want to see the medal. Everyone kind of, you know, feels connected to it when they meet an Olympian, and it's such a cool thing to share with people," Poulter said.
According to the Olympian, during a training break at the Anaheim gym where the national team works out, the gold medal was stolen from the center console of her car.
Coach of the women's volleyball national team, Karch Kiraly, hopes whoever took the medal will have some compassion and return it.
"Among athletes and teams, our program had had 12 previous Olympic attempts and finally won our first ever, that is the women's team...first ever gold medal and it certainly would be amazing for each of those 12 athletes to have their god medals," the coach said.
The medal is not solid gold, but to Poulter it's priceless. Despite the theft, Poulter said she wants to believe that there's good in humanity and she broke down crying when talking about it.
"With all the shootings, those kids, I...something like this seems so insignificant compared to something like that," Poulter said.
Police want the person who has the gold medal to return it to any police department. In the meantime, detectives are keeping a close eye on pawnshops, as well as online sales sites, so they can try and intercept the Olympic gold medal if there's an attempted sale.
