Gold medal stolen from U.S. Olympic volleyball winner’s car in Anaheim

Jordyn Poulter finished a Zoom call and walked into her garage to grab dinner Wednesday evening when she noticed the center console in her car was open.

The USA National Women’s Volleyball team member looked inside and realized several items were taken –  none more valuable to her than the gold medal she won with her teammates at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

She had returned home to East Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim three hours earlier, she said at a Friday news conference, but she left her car unlocked and the garage door open.

“My initial reaction was, “Why didn’t I shut the garage door?” Poulter said following her practice at Anaheim Sports Centers, where the US National volleyball teams train. “It’s such an unfortunate bummer. My initial thought is to never think the worst and things like this don’t happen, but they do happen and it’s unfortunate. You learn really quickly when you lose something this special, this priceless.”

Among other items missing was a bag containing her passport, she said.

She called Anaheim police around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday night, but detectives haven’t found much to go on, Sgt. Jacob Gallacher said Friday.

He asked anyone in the area to contact police if they saw something or have cameras that captured some part of the burglary.

Poulter was the first-string setter on the 2020 US Olympic Women’s Volleyball team, which won the program’s first-ever gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She said she keeps the medal with her in case she visits family, friends, or anyone who might want to take a look.

“So many feel connected to it when you meet an Olympian and it’s just kind of cool to share it with people,” she said.

Poulter, Coach Karch Kiraly and Gallacher pleaded with whoever took it to return the medal, no questions asked.

“Whenever you have an athlete, and all the hard work she or he put in not just in four years, but a lifetime, it’s really nice if we can get that person reunited with that symbol of all the hard work and suffering,” Kiraly said.

At 24 years old, Poulter is one of the younger members of the National team, Kiraly said, but she’s been recognized for her maturity and leadership.

Before the Olympics, she penned a letter that helped unify the team following the challenges of two years of lockdowns, delayed Olympics and the loss of life due to COVID, Kiraly said. She was voted in an election to be on the program’s leadership council.

“It’s unusual to have somebody that young so highly respected as a leader in this program,” Kiraly said.

A Colorado native, Poulter said she stays in Anaheim for about four months a year while training at the Anaheim Sports Centers.

Having the gold medal placed around her neck with her teammates in Tokyo was “the most special moment of my life,” she said.

“We’ve been chasing this gold medal since the birth of our USA Woman’s indoor team,” she said. “It represents a lot more than myself, it represents the program.”

The medal is gold plated, she said, but the inside is mostly made up of recycled computer parts.

“If you try to melt it down, it’s not going to get you very far,” she said.

Poulter is hardly the first athlete to lose an Olympic medal. Reuters, in 2012, reported the International Olympic Committee gets one or two requests for replacement medals every year. Medals have been replaced, but they are marked replica to distinguish them from the originals.

Investigators have been keeping an eye on pawn shops and internet websites like eBay and Craigslist for any post that references the medal, Gallacher said.

The person can drop off the medal at a police department, or call, he said, and they will work to get it back to its owner.

Poulter wants to believe that there’s good in people and that in instances like this, they would do the right thing.

“I don’t think it has as much sentimental value to you as it does to me, my friends, family, teammates and this program,” she said. “If you have it, please return it, no questions asked.”