Swimmer Gary Hall Jr., Who Trained at Cal, Awarded Lost Medals

Swimmer Gary Hall Jr., whose post-graduate training at Cal helped him win 10 Olympic medals, lost those medals earlier this year when his home was destroyed by fires at Pacific Palisades.

Hall Jr. got the 10 medals back on Monday when he was awarded replacements by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

“I’ll do a better job of taking care of these,” joked Hall Jr., according to the Associated Press.

Hall Jr., who attended college at Texas, later trained under then-Cal sprint coach Mike Bottom. That brought Hall to Berkeley intermittently, where he trained with former Cal swimmers Anthony Ervin and Duje Draganja.

Now 50, he was one of America’s greatest freestyle sprinters, winning five gold medals, three silver and two bronzes at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics. He was gold medalist in the 50-meter free at both the 2000 and ’04 Games.

Bach acknowledged the “unique ceremony” at Lausanne, Switzerland, awarding 10 Olympic medals to an athlete on the same day.

“I don’t think that it happened ever before and I hope it will never have to happen again,” Bach told Hall Jr. “We hope also to give you a moment of relief and joy which will help you now in the further process to get over what you had to go through with this tragedy.”

The wildfire in Pacific Palisades that burned Gary Hall Jr.'s home | Sandy Hooper / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Hall expressed gratitude over the gesture made by the IOC and to those who helped him overcome the tragedy of the L.A. fires.

“Having friends and family I am a very lucky man,” he said. “The support that I was offered from the athletic community has buoyed me through the darkest of nights.”

Hall Jr. said one of the first people to reach out to him with a surprise call of support was Australian swim icon Ian Thorpe, a rival at the Sydney Games in 2000. “I don’t know how he knew,” Hall Jr. said.

“That is what this (Olympic) family is about — rivals and friends. I am just so appreciative to all of them. I can’t thank the Olympic movement enough for their support through this very difficult time.”

Bach said he appreciated Hall Jr., making the trans-Atlantic trip for the ceremony.

“I cannot tell you how much we admire you, not only because of the medals, but because when we were reading your tragic story of losing your house, your possessions and all your worldly properties, this went straight to our heart,” Bach said.

“But even more so, when we learned how you overcame this tragedy in the style of a true Olympic champion, showing all the resilience, courage and confidence that you were known for as an athlete at the time, but you displayed under very different circumstances once more.”

Hall Jr. brought with him to Switzerland the melted, deformed gold medal he found in the ash remains of his home.

“It’s got some character,” Hall Jr. said. “The value of friends outweighs the value of objects. We live in a time of capitalism, consumerism and you realize when you lose everything, how little of it you truly need.

“Character cannot be taken away, it cannot be burned and it cannot be lost.”

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