The former shooting champion and current coach of the Italian national pistol team Roberto di Donna suffered a home burglary during which the criminals took away, among others, the Olympic medals from Atlanta 1996, the gold in the compressed air pistol and the bronze in the free pistol.
Some of the most important recognitions of an entire career have also disappeared, including the Golden Collar of Sporting Merit, the highest CONI honour.
The thieves, a man and a woman, broke into the house in Verona where Roberto Di Donna's mother lives, and after ransacking it, they also stole a sum of money and other objects.
The mother of the Olympic champion is scared by what happened but overall in good condition;
di Donna will present the complaint to the police tomorrow.
The Italian Shooting Union intervened in the episode, launching an appeal for those responsible for the theft to return at least the Olympic medals and the Coni Collar, awards of inestimable value for a sports champion.
Last summer, again in the Verona area, in Rivoli, another great Italian champion, Sara Simeoni, was the victim of a completely similar theft.
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