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Gary Hall Jr. is facing a terrible loss. The 50-year-old Hall of Fame Olympic swimmer confirmed that he lost 10 Olympic medals along with his home in the Pacific Palisades fires. He spoke out about evacuating and escaping the fire in an interview with CNN‘s Erin Burnett. “I thought I had more time,” he admitted. “I saw the fire charging down the hill and knew that I had to get out of there. I opened up the back of my SUV, I loaded a painting, one other object.” Keep reading to find out more… “The medals were in a closet in my bedroom, 70 feet away, and I didn’t have time to go get them,” he continued. “It wasn’t easy to leave that behind. I worked a lifetime to achieve that and the memories remain but the souvenir is gone.” Gary won four medals (two gold, two silver) in Atlanta in 1996, four (two gold, one silver, one bronze) in Sydney in 2000, and two (one gold, one bronze) in Athens in 2004. He also won six world championship medals—four in Rome in 1994 and two in Perth in 1998, via Sports Illustrated. He also spoke out about the fires destroying his ten medals and his home on CBS. Watch inside… Find out which other celebrities lost their homes in the fire.
