Melissa Belote Ripley, double backstroke champion and medley relay champion for the US at the 1972 Olympic Games, has launched an appeal for the return of her three medals. She was just 15 when she became the backstroke ace of her generation.
The triple gold collection was stolen from her home in Tempe yesterday, US media outlets report. Belote kept the medals in a safety deposit box but on the day of the theft had had them at home because she had needed them for a speaking engagement at a school. Perhaps someone knew...
Ripley, 53, was out of town to see her daughter swim at the Big 12 Championships when the theft occurred, reports state. The medals were discovered missing by her husband Rich, who told a paper in Arizona: "They're irreplaceable to her. But there's no monetary value to them if you melt them down. Hopefully nobody does that." Belote's name is engraved on the edge of each medal, her husband noted.
A year after winning the Olympic 200m backstroke in a world record in Munich, Belote held off the East German gold rush at the inaugural 1973 World Championships in Belgrade, taking both backstroke crowns. She swam on through those early years of results that stemmed from the GDR State Plan 14:25 and it was only in 1979, on the eve of the Olympic boycott of Moscow 1980 that she called an end to her swim career. After the retirement of her longtime mentor, Ed Solotar, she became co-coach of the Solotar Swim Team.
