Replica Olympic medals given to fire-hit US swim great

International Olympic chiefs have rallied round to give replica medals to Gary Hall Jnr, the US swimming great and one-time scourge of the Australian team, who's lost his home amid the Los Angeles wildfire disaster.

Hall, who won 10 Olympic medals in a glittering career and is still famed for his claim at the 2000 Games in Sydney that the Americans would smash the home swimmers "like guitars", has proved one of sport's high-profile victims of the fires.

The 50-year-old triple Olympian, a diabetic, revealed how he had to leave his medals at his gutted LA rented home in the Palisades fire, rushing instead to save his dog, Puddles, and grab his insulin.

"I thought I had more time," Hall Jnr told CNN at the time. "The medals were in a closet in my bedroom, 70 feet away, and I didn't have time to go get them.

"From the time that I saw the first plume of smoke at the top of the hill … I had about three minutes between then and when it came charging towards me.

"It wasn't easy to leave that behind. I worked a lifetime to achieve that and the memories remain but the souvenir is gone."

Hearing of his plight, the IOC has acted quickly to ensure he gets replicas of the five gold, three silver and two bronze medals he earned across three Olympic appearances in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

IOC President Thomas Bach said on Sunday: "We stand in full solidarity with the citizens of Los Angeles and are full of admiration for the tireless work of the firefighters and law enforcement officers.

"At this time, all attention must be focused on fighting the fires and protecting people and property.

"We have also learned that a great Olympian, Gary Hall Jr, has lost his medals in the fire. The IOC will provide him with replicas."

Hall has been renting in the Palisades area where he runs a business, Sea Monkeys Swimming, teaching children to swim.

Of the simultaneous blazes, which have ripped across America's second-largest city since Tuesday and killed at least 16 people as of late Saturday, Hall Jnr said: "It was worse than any apocalypse movie you've ever seen and 1,000 times worse.

"I saw a column of smoke coming out of the back of my house, the houses were starting to explode. There were explosions. I didn't have much time. Sunset Boulevard was completely crowded. People abandoned their cars and ran for their lives."