Italian Gets Gold Medal Twice: Diver Finds It in Mud

Davide Tizzano’s Olympic gold medal is lost no more. It was found this afternoon by a skin diver in 6 inches of mud near the boat dock at the bottom of the Han River.

Tizzano, 20, won the medal as an oarsman in Italy’s quadruple sculls boat Sunday, and he was parted from it when celebrating teammates threw him into the river after the presentation ceremony.

Diver Kang Su Nam, 29, said he and other divers had been searching an area in about 10 feet of water at the dock for almost an hour when he felt the medal. “I found it by touch, not by seeing it,” he said. “It was dark under the water.”

Two Italian coaches drove to the regatta, reclaimed the medal and presented it to a grateful Tizzano back at Olympic Village.