American swimmer Gary Hall Jr. Loses Olympic Gold Medals to California Wildfires: ‘Something I Can Live Without’

Olympic gold medalist Gary Hall Jr. was among the thousands of Californians displaced by the wildfires that ripped through the Los Angeles area this week, and like many others, he lost all of his priceless possessions — including all 10 of his Olympic medals.

But for Hall, he is grateful to have walked away with his life.

Gary Hall Jr. listens to the national anthem after receiving the gold medal in the men’s swimming 50 meter freestyle event on August 20, 2004 during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics in the main pool of the Olympic Sports Complex Aquatic Center in Athens, Greece. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

In an interview with Sydney Morning HeraldHall recalled the moment he first saw a “smoke plume” coming from his backyard. He was on the phone with his daughter when the disaster struck.

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“I saw the flames erupt and houses started to explode. There were explosions. I didn’t have much time,” he recalled in the interview. “Sunset Boulevard was completely jammed. People were leaving cars and running for their lives. The police told them to do it. My boyfriend was trapped in his car around smoke.”

The wildfires spreads quickly. Hall only had time to grab the essentials – his dog and a few personal items.

The Pacific Palisades home he was renting burned down, and with it all his Olympic medals, including five gold, three silver and two bronze. He thought of them at the moment, but the seriousness of the situation did not allow him to grab them.

The sun rises after the Palisades fire ravaged a neighborhood in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Damian Dovarganes/AP)

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“I was thinking about the medals. I didn’t have time to get them,” Hall told the magazine. “Everyone wants to know if the medals burned? Yes, everything burned. It’s something I can live without. Everything is just something, I guess. It’s going to take some hard work to start over. What can you do?”

Hall described the scene as “worse than any apocalypse movie you’ve ever seen and 1000 times worse.” More than losing his medals, Hall’s home, where he ran a business teaching children to swim, is now completely gone.

“It will be a range of emotions, especially when it’s time to go back to where the house stood. I will shift through the ashes and see if the medals melted together. Will I be able to find something worth saving ? Probably not. I don’t know.”

Gary Hall Jr. shows his gold medal for the men’s swimming 50 meter freestyle event on August 20, 2004 during the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics in the main pool of the Olympic Sports Complex Aquatic Center in Athens, Greece. (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

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Thousands of California residents were evacuated as raging wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds tore through Southern California this week. At least five people have died as the fires continued to burn more than 27,000 hectares on Thursday.

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