Source: Mike Hewitt / Getty
6-year-old, Chloe Smith, was on a walk with her father in Atlanta when she stumbled upon gold. Smith saw a shiny object in a pile of trash and curiously picked it up. Her father knew that what she had found was an Olympic gold medal.
Smith’s father remembered hearing about an Olympic gold medal that had been stolen from it’s owner, and he knew that his daughter had just found it. The medal belonged to Joe Jacobi, who won it at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The former slalom canoeist’s car had been broken into, and the medal had been stolen.
Chloe Smith’s mother said it took a little prying to get her daughter to give up the medal, but they contacted Jacobi and she returned it. Jacobi rewarded Smith for the medal’s return with $500, and said he would come speak to her class one day.
Jacobi told ABC News, “I’ve met the parents, and they’re wonderful. They’re great people. When you talk about character and doing the right thing, that girl has so many of the values of the Olympic Games. I think that Chloe represents and embodies all the Olympic values. In my eyes, she is an Olympian in every sense of the word.”
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