Olympic gold medalist Gary Hall Jr. He was one of thousands of California residents displaced by the wildfires that swept through the Los Angeles area this week and, like many, lost all his priceless possessions, including his 10 Olympic medals.
However, Hall is grateful to have made it out alive.
Gary Hall Jr. listens to the national anthem after receiving the gold medal in the men’s 50 meter freestyle swimming event on August 20, 2004 during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics in the main pool of the Aquatic Center Complex Athens Olympic Sports Center. Greece. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
In an interview with The Sydney Morning HeraldHall recalled the moment he first saw a “plume of smoke” coming from his backyard. He was on the phone with his daughter when the disaster occurred.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
“I saw the flames burst and the houses started to explode. There were explosions. I didn’t have much time,” he recalled in the interview. “Sunset Boulevard was a complete traffic jam. People were abandoning their cars and running for their lives. The police were telling them to do that. My girlfriend was trapped in her car surrounded by smoke.”
forest fires spread rapidly. Hall only had time to grab the essentials: his dog and some personal items.
The house he rented in Pacific Palisades was burned down and with it all his Olympic medals, including five gold, three silver and two bronze. He thought about them at that moment, but the gravity of the situation did not allow him to grab them.
The sun rises after the Palisades Fire devastated a neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Thursday, January 9, 2025. (Damián Dovarganes/AP)
CHARGERS DONATE $200,000 TO WILDFIRE FIRE RELIEF EFFORTS, URGES FANS TO HELP DRIVE SUPPLIES BEFORE PLAYOFFS
“I thought about the medals. I didn’t have time to get them,” Hall told the outlet. “Everyone wants to know if the medals were burned. Yes, everything was burned. It’s something I can live without. I guess it’s all stuff. It’s going to take a lot of work to start over. What can you do?”
Hall described the scene as “worse than any apocalyptic movie you’ve ever seen and 1,000 times worse.” Rather than losing his medals, Hall’s home, where he ran a business teaching children to swim, is now completely gone.
“It will be a variety of emotions, particularly when it comes time to return to where the house was. I’ll go through the ashes and see if the medals have melted. Will I be able to find anything worth saving? Probably not. I don’t know.”
Gary Hall Jr. displays his gold medal in the men’s 50 meter freestyle swimming event on August 20, 2004 during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics in the main pool of the Aquatics Center of the Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece . (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Thousands of California residents were evacuated as fierce wildfires fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds swept across Southern California this week. At least five people have died as fires continued to burn more than 27,000 acres on Thursday.
