His Olympic gold medal may be submerged on a river bottom.
After graduating high school, the 18-year-old fighter went to Rome and claimed the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Ali wrote in his 1975 autobiography that after he returned to Louisville, he threw his gold medal off a bridge and into the Ohio River to show a symbol of protest against the racism that he still encountered in his hometown. This incident, however, remains disputed and it is believed that Ali actually lost the medal instead. During the 1996 Summer Olympics, when he lit the cauldron in the Opening Ceremonies, Ali was honoured with a replacement gold medal.
10 astonishing facts about Muhammad Ali you probably didn’t know
