Former Hungarian fencer Laszlo Csongradi had his 1988 Olympic gold medal stolen when his house got broken into earlier this month. In an attempt to get it back, Csongradi said he is willing to negotiate and offered to leave it to the thief in his will if they return the medal.
"For two weeks, I can't calm down and be happy, because everything reminds me of my stolen Olympic gold medal," Csongradi told Hungary's Sportal website.
"I would give everything to the culprit, but I want him to return 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."
Csongradi, 65, earned that medal in the team sabre competition in the Seoul Summer Games in 1988 along with György Nébald, Bence Szabó, Imre Bujdosó and Imre Gedővári.
He was sleeping when the burglar broke into his home on Sept. 10. When he woke up, Csongradi became aware of what was going on and yelled at the thief, who quickly left the house. Csongradi said not even his parents knew where he stored the medal, so the thief likely just accidentally stumbled upon it. He added that the medal is more meaningful to him than it is for the thief, so he hopes this can be resolved.
"He could have taken other important things, but for some reason [the medal] was all he was interested in," Csongradi said.
"The thief touched many things, many fingerprints were left behind, but there is nothing to identify them. I don't know what to do to get the message across to him: I don't want to hurt him. ... You can negotiate with me."
