U.S. swimmer Gary Hall Jr. left behind his 10 Olympic medals while fleeing the Los Angeles fires with his dog, Puddles.
On Sunday, he learned that they will be replaced.
The International Olympic Committee announced in a statement from president Thomas Bach that it will provide new medals to replace those that Hall lost in the fires.
“We are in full solidarity with the citizens of Los Angeles and full of admiration for the tireless work of the firefighters and the security forces,” Bach’s statement reads. “Currently the full focus must be on the fight against the fires and the protection of the people and property.
“We have also learned that a great Olympian, Gary Hall Jr., has lost his medals in the fire. The IOC will provide him with replicas.”
Hall revealed his plight while giving an interview from his sister’s home in San Diego on Saturday. He described how he had seconds to make a decision when he realized that his Los Angeles home was under immediate threat from the Palisades fire.
Hall grabbed Puddles and his life-saving insulin and left behind everything else that wasn’t already loaded into his car.
“It was an exodus,” Hall said. “I saw a plume of smoke that doubled in width within a minute at the top of the hill that I live on. I live on a street called Lachman Lane, and I saw houses start to catch fire and knew that it was time to go.
“I didn’t have much time. I opened up the back of my SUV and started loading it. After my first trip, I started feeling the embers raining down on me and wasn’t going to stick around to find out how much time I had before my house went up.
“I grabbed my dog and my insulin. I have Type 1 diabetes and need that to live. And jumped in the car and abandoned my home, my Olympic medals and everything of sentimental value that I possess.”
Hall noted that he’d received several messages of support from his community, where he has a swim school for young children called Sea Monkeys.
“Knowing that this community has been displaced and that those kids are never going to go to their school again,” Hall continued. “It’s been to the ground, the restaurants, the barbershops, the people that they know and love and community, all of it. It makes me the most sad that I’ll never probably see some of those families again.”
Hall, 50, swam in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics while representing the U.S. A freestyle sprinter, Hall won five gold medals, three silvers and two bronzes across his three Games appearances. He won gold medals in Athens (2004) and in Sydney (2000) in his specialty, the 50-meter freestyle.
Hall was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 1999 and continued to compete at a world-class level. He won six of his 10 Olympic medals following his diagnosis.
As of Monday afternoon, at least 24 people had died in the fires around Los Angeles and nearly 200,000 residents remained under evacuation orders or warnings as the fires continued to burn.
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