Thanks to Port Orchard man, stolen medals returned to Australian swimmer after 24 years

John Campbell is a sports-medal junkie, so when a recent eBay search turned up a swimming medal from the 1960 Rome Olympics, he was delighted.

Campbell, of Port Orchard, bid on three medals in all and paid $7,500 for them.

The problem was, the medals belonged to one-time international swimming sensation John Konrads of Australia, who lost them when they and several others were stolen 24 years ago.

Campbell, 66, knew what he had to do.

"I could have kept them, but it's not my nature," he said today. So Campbell, himself a bicycle racer, contacted Konrads, 67, and offered to return the medals, as long as he was reimbursed. He says he's received most of the money he spent on the medals, which for now are being kept in a safe-deposit box in Kitsap County.

Not all of what happened to Konrads' medals after they were stolen is known, but 10 years ago, an Australian woman picked up 21 of them and some other medals at a garage sale for $200.

A local newspaper placed the value of the medals at $86,000.

When Campbell saw pictures of the medals he'd purchased he sat down on his couch. "I crossed my arms and said, I have to find out where this guy's at."

He found him in Melbourne.

"It knocked him off his feet," said Campbell. "They meant a lot to him."

Campbell says he has his own collection of medals from bicycle racing "and I can't imagine parting with mine."

When it was discovered that Campbell had purchased Konrads' medals from the woman in Australia, the police went to her home and took the rest.

After they were stolen, the International Olympic Committee gave Konrads replicas, which were on display at an Australia museum.

When Campbell contacted Konrads to say he had his medals, Konrads first thought he was talking about the duplicates. He was astonished to learn they were the real medals, said Campbell.

"It was just amazing," Konrads said today from his home in Melbourne. "(Campbell's) been very generous and kind. This is absolutely fantastic."

Early on, Konrads said, he believed the stolen medals would turn up, but after a couple of years and they didn't, police figured they'd been melted down.

He said he wasn't surprised that he was contacted by Campbell.

"The majority of collectors in the world are people full of honesty and integrity," he said. "A majority are like John Campbell."

Konrads was a swimming prodigy who broke every freestyle world record by the time he was 15 and went on to compete in the Rome Olympics and two others.

Among the medals the Australian woman purchased at the garage sale was the gold medal Konrads won in the 1,500-meter freestyle in Rome where he set an Olympic record.

Campbell said he would have purchased that medal had he known it was in the collection, even though it didn't have a chain, which makes it a bit less valuable.

Instead he bought two bronze Olympic medals earned by Konrads, in the 400-meter freestyle and a relay, and a gold medal he earned before the Olympics in a race in 1958 in Japan, where he won the 400-meter freestyle.

Campbell said most of the medals he buys are on display at a museum in Squaw Valley, Calif. Konrads' will go to the National Sports Museum at Melbourne's cricket grounds, which is paying Campbell for them.

Campbell says he's been collecting medals for years, but won't say how many he's purchased, just that it's five-times the number won by Olympian Michael Phelps, who won eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Most of the medals in his collection are gold, and he's bought them from the athletes themselves, trainers, pawn shops and Internet sites.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com