Gary Hall Jr is praying to find a puddle. It's the best he can hope for, a week after the retired swimmer looked toward the hills above Pacific Palisades and saw a plume of smoke. An alert rang on his phone about 10 minutes later. There was a fire and evacuations were taking place, the message said. It was already a little late.
Hall had already seen a “wall” of flames fall toward his house. He had already grabbed his dog and dodged the falling embers to get to his car. He had already begun to go through the 'apocalypse' that engulfed Los Angeles.
“People were stopping on sidewalks, trying to avoid other cars, running stop signs and red lights. It was terror, absolute terror on their faces. Despair,” he says.
“The black smoke was so thick they couldn't even see the side mirrors of their car.” Other people fled on foot. “They didn't know if they were running towards the flames or away from them.” Those flames devastated his house and stole almost everything he had worked for.
He only had three minutes to escape, enough time to grab a painting of his grandfather, a gift from his daughter, and his dog.
But the 50-year-old was forced to flee before he could collect the 10 Olympic medals he won between 1996 and 2004. He has vowed to return to Pacific Palisades armed with a shovel and the spirit of the 49ers.
Olympic champion Gary Hall Jr lost his house and his 10 medals in the Los Angeles wildfires
The Pacific Palisades area has been devastated by deadly wildfires in recent days.
In heartbreaking images, Hall shared a video of the site where his home once stood.
“You might find a melted puddle of Olympic medals: gold, silver and bronze,” Hall says. But he doesn't have much hope. “I don't think there's any chance.”
Neighbors have snuck in to see the devastation; Hall has shared a clip of the place where he lived and taught swimming. Now it is a pile of rubble, bent pipes and burned belongings. “They're saying there's nothing,” he says. “It's like a black puddle.” And the damage is not done.
The fires have already claimed 25 lives, but Los Angeles continues to burn. It is one of the most destructive natural disasters the area has ever seen. For Hall, it is the latest trauma in a life that has oscillated between the extraordinary and the barely believable.
As a young man, he overcame type 1 diabetes to win five gold medals and become one of the group's most charismatic figures.
In 2006, he wrestled, punched and kicked a blacktip reef shark after it bit his younger sister. They only escaped after she shot him with a spear. Hall was injured in a couple of car accidents and also survived countless hurricanes. “I'm questioning God's intentions right now,” he says.
“When you have a near-death experience… it definitely has an impact on your view of life, its fragility and its meaning,” Hall continues. 'What is the value of our life and our things?'
A week after running away from home, the 50-year-old lives with his sister a couple of hours south of Los Angeles. He's taken some small steps toward normal life: “My first purchase was a toothbrush,” Hall says. “About two days later, deodorant.” Now he also has more underwear and socks.
You have been canceling utility payments and completing FEMA applications; to GoFundMe pageCreated by his sister, it has raised more than $80,000. But what's next for his life and his coaching business, Sea Monkeys Swimming? “There are so many questions,” Hall says.
He is still trying to process this last layer of trauma. There are certain things he can't explain: “It will be some time before I can express how impressive this wildfire was,” he says.
“I'm questioning God's intentions right now,” the former Olympic swimmer told Mail Sport.
Hall won ten Olympic medals, including two gold and two silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Police cars are seen guarding houses that were burned during the disaster in California
There are many more that will never replace. The IOC has offered 10 more Olympic medals, but you won't find another 1962 Volkswagen Kombi, his first car that took him on road trips along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. “It was part of my identity,” he says. It was visible in that video. “Crushed, melted,” Hall says. 'Distressing.'
Hall collected a souvenir every time swimming took him somewhere new. Works of art, antiques, furniture. 'Every piece of my house… had a story. A story.' Like the leather Chesterfield sofa: one of his daughters, Gigi, had scribbled his name in a hidden corner. “I can get a new Chesterfield,” Hall says, his voice starting to shake. “But it won't be the one that has my daughter's signature.”
The 50-year-old speaks from the front seat of a car and at one point briefly ends the call. There is a grim irony to the reason: his cell phone had begun to overheat.
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Within a minute, that plume of smoke had doubled in size. Within another 60 seconds, the wind had sent flames down the hill. “I immediately called my girlfriend,” he says. “The fire department will put it out,” Hall told him. I was wrong.
Moments later, Hall was struggling to gather his belongings near the door. The first thing you grabbed? The portrait. “I loved my grandfather more than anyone,” Hall says. He picked up the religious artifact his daughter gave him, his dog Puddles, some dog food, and some insulin.
“Next stop would have been a small safe in my closet in the bedroom that had the medals, a collection of nice watches (and) jewelry.” But time ran out. He drove to the village of Pacific Palisades and noticed that many people were “oblivious” to what was happening.
“Some people were watching it and filming it,” he says. 'Children playing in the park with their babysitters. And then, once the wall of fire crossed the hill… everyone ran for their lives. “It was chaos.”
Soon? “People trapped in their cars on Sunset (Boulevard) had fire on both sides,” Hall says. “You can imagine the desperation of a parent when their children are at school, five blocks away.” His girlfriend's house was also destroyed.
“To me, they represent resilience,” Hall Jr said of the Olympic medals he lost in the disaster.
The deadly fires have killed at least 25 people as firefighters struggled to contain them.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed by flames in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood
“I couldn't see the car in front of me,” Hall says. What was visible? “Women running, hugging their children, breathing this black smoke, just screaming.” The fire was now blocking both main roads out of the city.
“The cars were trapped and there was nowhere to go.” Fortunately, Hall knew a secondary route and his companion escaped. “All the other cars in Sunset burned down.”
Hall's sister had the foresight to book him a hotel room, before everyone else had the same idea. The search was “somber”, since the locals arrived carrying their belongings, their pets and with an “exorbitant” look at what they had witnessed.
“Many of them knew their homes were gone,” he says. “The desperation was so real.” As the night wore on, the streets of Santa Monica became increasingly busier. Many people slept in their cars. All while a black cloud 'just hung' over our heads. “It's not like night,” Hall says. “It's something much darker.”
He only left to pick up a toothbrush and an emergency prescription. Without needles for his insulin, he couldn't eat.
A week later, Hall is still having trouble sleeping. The flashbacks, the nightmares. Even more trauma. It's been nearly two decades since that spearfishing trip in the Florida Keys when a six-foot shark tore a chunk out of his sister's arm.
Hall was forced to kick him and punch him in the nose; Bebe shot him as he charged towards her, his mouth open.
The retired swimmer regularly flirted with tragedy while living in Florida during hurricane season, when “my whole house is shaking, I'm afraid my roof is going to be ripped off, trees are flying through my car.” All of those experiences—the Olympics, sharks, car accidents, hurricanes—contain lessons.
“Comfort in chaos,” says Hall. “Everything slows down and you feel very alive…there's something darkly alluring or attractive about it.”
In 2006, Hall and his sister were attacked by a blacktip reef shark off the coast of Florida.
Beyond his success in the pool, Hall also became one of the most charismatic figures in swimming.
Unfortunately, that won't cover a new home. Hall is among those who lost State Farm fire insurance last year.
“When you need them the most, they deny it, deny it, deny it… they make extremely difficult times even more difficult,” he says. 'Everyone knows that IIt's going to be a disaster.
Fortunately, support has come from elsewhere. From close friends and people you haven't seen in 20 years. They have offered him clothing, accommodation and 10 new medals.
“In some ways, they're a nice reminder of some swimming races from long ago,” Hall says. But? “To me, (they) represent resilience… how we respond, and if we can triumph and persevere through countless setbacks and tribulations, that's what life is all about.”
Hall is determined to respond to every message of support. He's not the only one who needs help.
“The average age of Sea Monkeys Swimming clients is two to six years old,” he says. “Watching a five-year-old try to understand that his whole life as he knew it is over,” he says. 'What are God's intentions with this? I think it is to be determined.