Antiques Roadshow guest struggles to catch her breath as she learns mind-boggling value of her ‘dunce’ grandmother’s gold Olympic medal

An Antiques Roadshow guest was so stunned she had difficulty breathing when she heard the value of her ‘dumb’ grandmother’s Olympic gold medal.

Appraiser Adam Schoon told the good news to Julia, who had brought along a collection of swimming medals.

Her impressive collection of awards included a gold medal from the 1924 Paris Olympics, which had belonged to her grandmother Lucy Morton.

Julia explained that Lucy had started swimming at the age of 10 and had competed in the Olympic Games in Paris, but no one expected her to do very well.

She brought a picture and said, “That’s my grandma Lucy Morton. She started swimming when she was about 10 years old.”

‘What happened was that her father said, “You’re such a fool at school, you don’t seem to be doing very well,” and he decided, “Let’s try swimming.”‘

The BBC expert was intrigued by the catch and noticed there were also several medals from smaller races.

He said: ‘Back to her remarkable rise, because it is littered with gold medals.

‘I saw that there are a number of medals here that she would have won for, I suppose, county races, national races. She sets world records.

“They’re all 15-karat gold, but all these smaller medals ultimately make up this one.”

Adam then pointed to the largest medal, an Olympic gold medal, and Julia happily explained its background to him.

She said: ‘In 1923 they became very interested in her and asked her to take up swimming in preparation for the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.

‘She trained and went to Paris in 1924. She wasn’t expected to win or anything.

‘Unfortunately, I have heard that some Americans have been infected with a virus.

‘She made it to the finals of the 200m breaststroke and everyone was cheering, apparently. She crossed the finish line and had a chaperone with her, who said, ‘You won!’

‘Got her out of the pool, put her in her robe. She was actually the first female swimmer to win a gold medal in swimming for Great Britain.

“I’m really proud of her. At that age, at that time, women didn’t do that and to actually swim at 27, I think that was quite old.”

The appraiser was very impressed and told the guest that she should be rightly proud. He also said that Julia might be surprised by the value of one medal from her grandmother.

He explained that the medal was quite rare and that although it was made of silver, only 304 copies existed.

He said: ‘It was designed in Paris by a man called André Rivaud, it was made at the Paris mint and there were only 304 of them made, as far as I know.’

Julia said her grandmother Lucy continued swimming even after her own career was over.

The impressive athlete served as coach of the Olympic team and mentored other swimmers in the country.

She said, ‘She loved it. It was her life.’

Finally, Adam revealed how much he thought the medal was worth.

He said to Julia, ‘So when it comes to value, Olympic medal, £15,000?’

The guest was so stunned by the news that she had difficulty breathing, but she couldn’t help but laugh at the enormous amount.

“What? That one medal?” she gasped.

The expert suggested that all the other medals could be worth another £15,000, making Julia’s total treasure worth at least £30,000. However, the appraiser added that the most valuable item was Julia’s grandmother’s journal.

The sporting revelation comes after fans were left ‘screaming’ at their screens as an expert appeared to ‘ruined’ a guest’s rare scrapbook on an episode of the BBC show earlier this week.

In a repeat of the broadcast on Sunday evening, stunned viewers quickly saw the accident of expert Fuchsia Voremberg.

A woman went to Salisbury Cathedral to see how much her great-uncle’s book was worth, the book he had written while he was in the army.

The fragile object was made from printed scraps and ferns from the 1890s that her relative had sent from India, the woman said.