Family of Canadian track legend receives replica Olympic gold medals after originals were stolen

Two stolen Olympic gold medals won by Canadian track legend Percy Williams 95 years ago are coming home. Sort of. 

The medals are actually freshly minted replicas of the ones awarded to the Vancouver sprinter at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games, recreated by the International Olympic Committee at the request of Williams family some four decades after the originals disappeared.

On Friday, they are being presented to the family and rededicated to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.

"We are very happy to have played a small part in renewing Percy's story," said family member Tracey Mead. "He was a great Canadian athlete and now his accomplishments will be back on display."

In 1928, the 20-year-old Williams was a relative unknown who outraced favourites from the United States, Germany and Great Britain to win gold in both the men's 100 metres and 200 metres. A school holiday was declared the day Williams arrived back in Vancouver and 25,000 people turned out to meet him at the train station. 

The diminutive speedster held the 100m world record from 1930 to 1936 before it was broken by American hero Jesse Owens. In 1978, The Canadian Press named Williams Canada's greatest Olympian.

A statue of Williams stands outside the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in downtown Vancouver, but curator Jason Beck says Williams is perhaps Canada's greatest athlete who no one remembers.

"When I started out at the hall I would begin tours outside at the statue of Percy and ask people, 'Do you know who this person is?' No one would know. And then I'd tell the group ... and everyone was just astounded," said Beck.

"There's only nine male athletes in history that have ever [won the Olympic 100m and 200m], including Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens and Usain Bolt. So