Olympic swimmer Gary Hall Jr. had earned 10 medals across three Olympic games, but they all were destroyed when wildfires burned across Los Angeles earlier this year.
Hall was renting a home in Pacific Palisades, but it burned to the ground, along with the five gold, three silver and two bronze medals he earned during the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympic games, the Los Angeles Times reported.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Tuesday presented Hall with replicas of the 10 medals lost to the flames.
They were given during a private ceremony at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bach said, “We really appreciate your presence here. I cannot tell you how much we admire you, not only because of the medals, but because when we were reading your tragic story of losing your house, your possessions and all your worldly properties, this went straight to our heart. But even more so, when we learned how you overcame this tragedy in the style of a true Olympic champion, showing all the resilience, courage and confidence that you were known for as an athlete at the time, but you displayed under very different circumstances once more.”
Hall brought with him gold medals from Atlanta and Athens that melted into one, the IOC said in a news release.
He had kept the originals in a fireproof safe, which he joked, “I’ve got to check the warranty on that because it definitely was not fireproof.”
He said he returned weeks after the fire destroyed his home and was able to find and open the safe, where he found the melted medals along with jewelry, watches and cufflinks that became “one big blob.”
Hall also lost his business, Sea Monkeys Swimming, where he ran out of the pool at the house. He’s trying to resurrect the business but may move it to Florida, where he’s been living the past few months or San Diego County before eventually returning to the Palisades area, the LA Times reported.
After having the medals placed on his neck, Hall said, “I’m emotional, it’s hard for me to put words together in this time. I would like to express my gratitude first and foremost.”
“I cannot thank the Olympic Movement enough for their support through this very difficult time. Their realisations through this process that outweigh the sense of loss and that is this word of solidarity and what it means: the value of friends outweighs the value of objects, and character cannot be taken away, it cannot be burned, it cannot be lost and what is inside of us, our spirit, our being, our soul – that is important. We live in a time of capitalism, consumerism and you realise when you lose everything how little of it you truly need," he said in the IOC news release.
Telling the LA Times via phone, Hall said he got emotional receiving the medals.
“Just the appreciation — ‘one of our own’ was kind of the sense that I was embraced with,” Hall said. “When tough times happen, you find out who your friends are. And to see this response from the highest level of sport, it makes you feel special. It makes you feel supported, which is so needed at this time. And with the rebuilding process and dealing with incredible loss, that value is tremendous.”
Hall also had the opportunity to sign the Olympic House Olympian Wall.
The next Summer Games will be held in Los Angeles in 2028, CNN reported.
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