Antiques Roadshow guest left open-mouthed at staggering worth of her Olympic gold medal
ok.co.ukOn Antiques Roadshow, a guest shared the inspiring tale of her grandmother's journey from being dubbed a "dunce" at school to becoming an Olympic swimming champion.
Expert Adam Schoon was intrigued by Julia's collection of swimming medals on the BBC show, including a gleaming gold medal from the 1924 Paris Olympics, as he inquired who it belonged to. "That's my grandmother Lucy Morton, swimming, she started swimming when she was about aged 10," Julia recounted, before she found out the staggering price of the Antique, a whopping £15,000.
Her father's unconventional solution to her academic struggles led Lucy to the pool: "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.'" Adam, curious about Julia's own aquatic abilities, asked if she had the "swimming DNA", prompting Julia to quip that she could manage "swim a length", just enough "to save my life".
He then turned the attention back to Lucy's extraordinary achievements, noting her collection of gold medals. "I noticed that there's a number of medallions around here which she would have won for, I presume, county races, national races.
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