The great-niece of a swimming legend who won New Zealand's first Olympic gold medal "wept" after it was returned – 112 years after it was thought to be lost.
Swimmer Malcolm Champion won the medal as part of a combined Australian-New Zealand team at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. The quartet claimed gold in the 200 metre freestyle relay.
"I wept and I was delighted," Anne Dillon said of its unexpected return.
"It felt like a miracle."
For decades, the family did not know where the medal was.
"It was thought it had been lost or stolen or thrown away," she said.
Dillon said the family knew part of the story.
After Champion died in 1939, his Australian widow took the medal back across the Tasman, where it remained for three generations.
But the next person to inherit the medal wasn't interested in it, she said, and instead passed it to an anonymous Australian friend.
The story took a dramatic turn last year, when a younger member of the Australian friend's family was tidying up.
"She put her hand into a sock drawer, and touched a box at the back," Dillon said.
Once she realised the significance of the medal, Dillon said she contacted the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) "and it was repatriated".
'Goosebumps'
The medal was won in 1912 by swimmer Malcolm Champion.
1News was on hand in Auckland this weekend when the medal was presented to the current Olympic swimming team as they prepared to head off to Paris.
NZ Swimming chief executive Steve Johns told the team the Champion family did not want to keep the medal to themselves.
"The family have very generously donated this medal back to the New Zealand Olympic Committee," he said, "to be held in treasure and in trust for all athletes to see and to hold before they head off to Olympic Games and hopefully get inspired by what Malcolm Champion did back in 1912."
Dillon echoed that sentiment.
"We never saw it as ours exclusively, and we want it shared with the nation," she said.
The current Olympic swim team greatly appreciated the gesture of Champion's family.
"It's really cool that the first gold medal was won by a swimmer," said team member Hazel Ouwehand.
Fellow Olympian Kane Follows said he got "goosebumps" thinking about the medal.
"To realise that you're going to compete for New Zealand just like he did over a hundred years ago – that's pretty awesome."
Humble beginnings
Kiwi Olympic swimmer Malcolm Champion. (Source: 1News)
What makes Champion's medal all the more remarkable was the swimmer's humble beginnings.
According to his family, he learned to swim in lagoons in Norfolk Island, where he was born.
Dillon said he was a "water child", a strong swimmer over short and long distances – but when he started competitive swimming, he needed help.
"He did not know how to dive into the water," she said, "and he did not know how to do turns."
She said a "sympathetic" competitor gave him the advice he needed.
After Paris, the NZOC intends for the medal to travel to future Olympic and Commonwealth Games as a taonga in the New Zealand team village.
In between events, the aim is for it be available for public viewing at the new New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
The museum is due to start construction later this year in Cambridge, and is expected to be completed by late next year.
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