DNP 
BY YUSUF PRECIOUS UWA
Olympic champion Gary Hall Jr has been presented with replicas by the International Olympic Committee after losing his original collection in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
The 50-year-old American received replacements for all 10 of his Olympic medals, five gold, three silver, and two bronze, during a special ceremony held in Lausanne, where outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach personally handed them over.
“Thank you for the medals,” Hall Jr said. “Never before have 10 Olympic medals been replaced, probably because no one has lost 10 medals before. I will do a better job at taking care of these. The realisation through this process, that outweighs any sense of loss, is this word solidarity and what it means, which cannot be taken away.”
Hall earned his medals representing the United States at three Olympic Games, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and Athens 2004. In January, wildfires swept through parts of Los Angeles, killing at least 29 people and destroying numerous homes. Hall was forced to evacuate his Pacific Palisades residence and leave his medals behind. “When we were reading your tragic story of losing your house and all your possessions and all your worldly properties, this was going straight to our heart,” said Bach during the ceremony.
As Hall fled his home on 7 January, he had only minutes to gather a few essentials. He managed to grab the insulin needed for his Type 1 diabetes, a painting of his grandfather, a wooden religious piece from his daughter, and his dog, a pug-chihuahua mix named Puddles. The medals, however, had to be left behind.
“The damage is more than just a dollar amount. The memories of what those Olympic medals represent … I can never get those back. I can never get any of the things back. This all happened so fast. I would say within three minutes. Three minutes is what I had to collect things and get out,” Hall said in an interview on CBS News’ The Daily Report on 9 January.
In response to Hall’s story, the IOC announced it would provide full replicas of his lost medals. “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 said in a statement at the time. “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.”
