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Gary Hall Jr.’s Olympic medals were destroyed in Los Angeles fires. On Monday, he received 10 replicas of medals at the IOC headquarters to replace the ones he lost.
Like most Hall’s belongings, the original medals burned four months ago at their home in the Pacific Palisades.
“I will do a better job to take care of this,” Hall said joking.
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The American swimmer Gary Hall Jr. has an original Atlanta medal 1996 that melted during forest fires in Los Angeles who destroyed his house, while holding a replica medal presented in Lausana, Switzerland, on Monday, May 5, 2025. (Denis Balibouse/Keystone/Reuters Pool through AP)
The 50 -year -old received a new set of five gold medals, three plates and two bronze medals that obtained swimming for the United States.
The president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, said that presenting Hall Jr. 10 medals the same day was a “unique ceremony.”
“I don’t think it happened before and I hope it never happens again,” Bach told Hall. “We also hope to give it a moment of relief and joy that will now help you in the additional process to overcome what had to happen to this tragedy.”
Hall brought to the ceremony a gold medal that he found deformed at home after forest fires.
Los Angeles begins the trip to the 2028 Olympic Games with style
American swimmers Anthony Ervin, on the left, and Gary Hall Jr., Center, who tied the gold in the freestyle of 50 meters male, meet the Dutch swimmer Pieter Van Den Hoogenband, who won the bronze medal, on September 22, 2000, during the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. (AP Photo/David Longstream, Archive)
Hall won the gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games in the 4x100M free relay and the 4x100m combined relay and took two silver medals home in the freestyle of 50 my 100 m free of free style in those same games.
The Native of Phoenix, Arizona, won two more gold medals at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games in the 50 my freestyle a combined 4x100m relay, while collecting a silver and bronze medal in Australia.
In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Hall Jr. won its two final medals. A gold medal in the 50 my freestyle a bronze medal in the 4x100m free -style relay.
The American swimmer Gary Hall Jr. holds a medal that melted during forest fires while using the replicas of Olympic medals that are presented during a ceremony in the Olympic house in Lausana, Switzerland, Monday, May 5, 2025. (Denis Balibouse/Keystone/Reuters Pool through AP)
“Having friends and family, I am a very lucky man,” Hall said. “The support they offered me from the sports community has driven me through the darkest nights.”
“That’s what this family (Olympic) is about: rivals and friends. I am very grateful to all of them. I cannot thank the Olympic movement enough for their support in this difficult time.”
