Gary Hall Jr., a 10-time Olympic Medalist, was forced to evacuate yesterday, losing everything in the Palisades fire.
Gary Hall Sr. posted on Facebook this evening that Gary Jr. had to evacuate quickly yesterday with nothing but his dog, Puddles, his insulin, a painting of his grandfather, and a painting of the ‘Blessed Mary’ given to him by his daughter.
Everything else, including his Olympic medals and family heirlooms were lost when the fire reached his home, according to his father, who is also an Olympian.
Hall was using the home he was renting to teach swim lessons to kids in the area through his business, Sea Monkeys Swimming.
He was able to get a hotel for him and his dog last night, and is now staying with family in San Diego.
A GoFundMe was created to support him and help him recover from the loss of his home and his business. The fund has currently raised $5,900 of his $10,000 goal.
Hall Jr. won 10 Olympic medals between 1996-2004, winning back-to-back titles in the 50m freestyle in 2000 and 2004. He was also a crucial member of United States relays and helped them to three golds (1996: 4×100 free, 4×100 medley; 2000 4×100 medley), a silver (2000: 4×100 free), and a bronze (2004: 4×100 free). His other medals were two silvers (1996: 50 and 100 free; 2000) and a bronze (2000: 100 free).
It would be awesome if someone could salvage the raw metal from the medals and create them into a cool piece of art, etc. for him so that he would still have some sentimental value associated with them.
Why the GoFundMe? Did he not have renter’s insurance?
Insurance only covers so much. It HOPEFULLY covers the lost house and some possessions, but not the lost income for an extended period of time. Most people cannot just replace everything they own a whim, even if they have good insurance.
Also it sounds like a lot of neighborhoods in CA had their fire insurance dropped.
It’s been long anticipated climate change was going to strain the insurance and therefore housing markets to a breaking point. To the extent any of this damage is going to be covered, I expect this disaster to be a domino in however long it takes that to unfold but one can reasonably expect in the next few years.
I really hate this post 2008 world were we all just have to go along with pretending everything isn’t a house of cards
Pull yourself up by the boot straps
Saw a good Instagram post about this phrase the other day: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEk2TmUx4-s/?hl=en
Replica or replacement medals from the IOC or USOC? Not the same but…
Thank heavens Gary Hall Jr. is safe—and that his insulin made the trip as well.
weird dig
33 downvotes?? Tough crowd
Weirder reply
well when you type something clearly being an A$$, that’s what you get.
I hope you never lose your home and all your possessions in a tragedy like this. Despite you being a complete ass hat.
This tragedy could have been avoided if the governor of California would authorize proper forest management. There is reason that forest fires of this scale only happen in California and not Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada. It has to do with the leadership of the state.
Do you also believe that whales are scared of windmills?
Do you not care about our marine life? The increase in frequency of whales washing up on shore has increased drastically recently in New England. Something is clearly wrong, and it correlates directly to the installation of windmills.
But go green, or red, or blue. Whatever you want. It’s time to put aside political differences to save our planet and the species that live here. It’s sad that political divisions are making some folks turn a blind eye to a very big issue that they otherwise would be getting behind.
Nope your wrong. lost fishing nets and gear and boat propeller hits killing whales in Northeast
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Texas_wildfires
You are an absolute moron.
Totally. All those forests in those other states🥸
You know… I live in one of those countries that Trump claims “rakes their forests” or whatever. Guess what? We don’t.
I don’t know what irks me more, that this i what we got as a pathetic excuse for “leadership”, or that tens of millions of people just automatically go along with ever bit of dementia ridden dribble that falls out of that mans mouth.
No human being and no government can control mother nature throwing 100 mph winds our way (that being said we can discuss the disturbing pacific hotspots which likely fueled this unusual weather… don’t look up!)
Well, its good to hear Puddles is ok.
Prayers to Gary Hall Jr. in quickly getting back on his feet again. ❤️