Gary Hall Jr. received replicas of his 10 Olympic medals after the originals were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires in January. They were presented to him by IOC President Thomas Bach during a ceremony at the Olympic House in Lausanne. Hall saw his medals reduced to ashes in the wildfires that ravaged California in January 2025. He was only able to save his dog and a few paintings. During the ceremony, he delivered a lesson of courage: "The value of friends outweighs the value of objects, and character cannot be taken away, it cannot be burned, it cannot be lost and what is inside of us, our spirit, our being, our soul – that is important. We live in a time of capitalism, consumerism and you realise when you lose everything how little of it you truly need."