Last week, when Melissa Jefferson-Wooden appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show, she walked on the set donning her three World Championship gold medals. It turned out, she loves to carry her medals with her wherever she goes. But there was a time when this habit almost made her lose her medals. 

During her recent appearance on The CITIUS MAG Podcast, Jefferson-Wooden revealed a story that almost ended in tragedy – losing her World Championships medals. When the host asked her if she tends to fly with the medals in her carry-on bag, the champion began the story of her return from the Tokyo World Championships. She always has the medals in her carry-on bag. And this time too, it was the same. But on her last flight from Atlanta to Orlando, that which she boarded with her husband, Rolan Wooden, and Twanisha Terry, her bag got exchanged. 

She put the blame on the design of the airplane. Instead of entering around the end of the plane, they had to step in through the door near the emergency exit. And the problem was that their bags were placed slightly behind them. Jefferson-Wooden recalled, “When we were getting off the plane, someone actually grabbed my carry-on back with the medals in there. Because Rolan was rolling. Rolan was the one wheeling the bag, but he was like, this isn’t the same handle, like this ain’t the same wheels, like something’s wrong.”

Looking at their worried faces, ‘Tee Tee’ enquired about it. And she took it upon herself to catch the lost bag. It was simply because Terry walked faster than the Wooden couple. And she did! The man with the bag was flabbergasted and began apologizing. He claimed that he wasn’t paying attention, and the guy travelling with him handed him the wrong bag. As expected, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden had only one thought – “How could you not realize you didn’t pick up your own bag?” But it worked out in the end. 

Had the guy walked out with the bag, Jefferson-Wooden claimed that she would have never seen him again. And the medals would have been lost forever. But, there’s a special reason as to why Jefferson-Wooden keeps her medals close and often travels with them.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden always carries her medals for one reason

During the conversation with CITIUS MAG, the host asked her if the medals were still out. Jefferson-Wooden confessed, “Right now, they’re kind of like in the case most of the time because we’re travelling with them so much. And I would literally cry if anything were to happen to them. But yeah, they’re out and about. They’re being shown around.” And she’s pretty picky when it comes to showing her medals. 

She claimed that if she wanted to show someone her medals, she’d go out of her way to do so. If you’re at the spot and she has the medals on her, she’d show them to you. Otherwise, she’d go and pull her medals out for you to see them. This shows how proud she is of her achievements.

And during her appearance on the American singer and actress Jennifer Hudson’s talk show, she even let the host hold the medals and marvel at them.