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Displaying items by tag: olympics

Thursday, 15 February 2018 13:59

Mazdzer Takes Silver

[Photo provided]

FRANKLIN AND ESSEX COUNTIES — Chris Mazdzer, resident of Saranac Lake, New York, took the Olympic silver medal for men’s singles in luge racing on
Sunday, Feb. 11 at the Pyeongchang Winter Games after finishing 18th overall in the World Cup standings. He is the first athlete in the United States to win this specific medal. For more information on Mazdzer, look out for our Saratoga Healthy Magazine, out on May 4, 2018.

Published in Sports
Thursday, 06 July 2017 14:20

Local Sports Physician Celebrates 35 Years

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dr. David Gabay still occasionally finds his dreams drifting back to when he was fresh out of college.

“It’s funny, I still have the dreams where I wake up, and I’m still in chiropractic college and I have three months to graduate, and I don’t know where I’m gonna go,” Gabay said. “And now it’s 35 years later.”

Gabay first established his private chiropractic practice in Saratoga Springs back in May of 1982, just a few months after finishing school in December of 1981. He had completed his undergraduate degree at Stony Brook, and his graduate school had been the New York Chiropractic College, which was then located in Long Island. He initially stressed about which direction to take his career early on, not sure whether to go work some place as an associate, or to start up his own practice. Despite offers from respected chiropractors in Manhattan and Long Island, he followed the urgings of family friend Robert D. Scott to come check out the Saratoga area for a potential practice.

After staying with Scott for around two weeks, Gabay made the decision to take a risk on his own practice, starting out with a location on Myrtle Street. Having grown up in the Pine Bush section of Albany, it was something of a homecoming for him. Now, many years and accomplishments later, Gabay’s practice is still going strong on the second floor of a building on Maple Avenue, just across from the middle school tennis courts.

Gabay recalled an amusing exchange from the early days of his practice. Two of his first patients, local golf enthusiasts Mike McGraw and Denny Farone, were interested in checking out “the new guy in town.” Both men were in need of a chiropractor, but expressed concern over getting treatment from someone as young as Gabay.

“To this day, Mike remembers my response,” Gabay said. “I said, ’Well, do you want somebody who’s old or do you want somebody that’s good?’”

Gabay began to get involved in sports medicine in 1994 after Dr. Philip Santiago, the first ever chiropractor chosen to be part of the U.S. Olympic Team Medical Staff, established the Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician program to offer specialized training to chiropractors looking to work with professional athletes and Olympians. Gabay completed his certification over the course of three years, going to Meadowlands area of N.J. one weekend each month for classes and hands-on instruction. From time to time, he worked with the New York Giants while working towards his certification, occasionally attending games to help the players on-site.

A few years later, Gabay went to work at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, alongside a number of other professionals from a wide variety of medical disciplines. His and everyone else’s job there was to help get as many injured athletes off the bench as possible in time for them to compete in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. Gabay stayed in the position right up until the athletes shipped out for the games. He was offered the opportunity to attend the games, but ut as a solo practitioner, Gabay could not be away from his practice for another 3 weeks.

Since then, Gabay has worked with U.S. bobsledding, skeleton, and luge teams at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, and recently procured funding and casted orthotics for Bobsled, athletes.

Some of the teams that Gabay worked with included the U.S. wrestling teams, the judo and taekwondo teams, the weightlifting team, the shooting team, and more. Some of the notable individuals that Gabay worked with during this time included three-time wrestling gold medalist and future Edinboro University athletic director Bruce Baumgartner, and gold medalist and future WWE performer Kurt Angle.

In his spare time, Gabay likes to work on restoring classic cars, for which he has a garage set up out back of the building where his practice is. Often on the weekends, he gets together with a group of friends to work on his latest restoration project.

(UPDATE, 11:42 a.m., 7/7: This online article has been changed with minor corrections, and so differs from the print article.)

Published in Sports

My Olympic journey in judo first came to fruition when I qualified for the 1988 Games in Seoul, Korea. It’s hard to believe that in one way or another, the journey has continued for almost two decades. I have been involved in the past eight Olympics: the first four as a player (Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney); the next one (Athens) for my magazine, Real Judo; the next (Beijing) as a coach; and in the most recent three, including Rio, competitors have reached the Games from the training center in Glenville that my wife, Teri, and I started. I reached both the high and low of this Olympic journey at the 25th Olympiad in Barcelona, Spain. And it happened within a span of nine days. I’d had four narrow misses leading up to the Barcelona Games - losing in the bronze medal match at the 1987 world championships, losing in the second round of the 1988 Olympics and losing in the bronze medal match of the 1989 world championships. Then, I had to settle for ninth place at the 1991 world championships. I was considered one of the top players in the world during that time, but I couldn’t break through and reach the podium at the main events. In 1987, 1988 and 1989, I had lost to Bacir Varaev from Russia; even now, I joke that he has three of my medals. I had gone into those events with high confidence, fully expecting to win. Losing had taken a toll. Maybe I needed a new approach. I was all business my first Olympics, not really taking in all it had to offer. I changed that in Spain. Even though I trained extremely hard, I was determined to enjoy the Olympic ride, so to speak, and take it all in. There are so many things to enjoy inside and outside the Olympic village, and I tried to take advantage in hopes of lessening the pressure of the competition. I hung out on the beach boardwalk, which had a couple places to eat and a fantastic view. The ocean was very calming. Seeing it took me away from the fact that I was at a competition. I changed my mind-set. I wasn’t going to define my career by whether I medaled. I recall enjoying the entire process, including my competition days. As I moved through the rounds, I was quite calm. I didn’t put the pressure on myself that I had in the past. I was able to control those emotions and work my way through each match, doing what was needed to be successful. I ended up beating one of the favorites to win our division -Antonie Wurth of the Netherlands in the second round, even though he had defeated me earlier in the year in the Hungarian Open final. Next up, in the quarterfinals, was a familiar name. I was to face Charip Varaev, the brother of my biggest rival. The Russians replaced Bacir with Charip for the Barcelona Games, even though Bacir had medaled in four previous Olympics. Finally taking out a Varaev was satisfying, but even more important, it put me into the semifinals. I was one victory from finally achieving a medal. When I threw Lars Adolfsson, from Sweden, in the semifinal to secure a place in the final and assuring myself a spot on the podium, I walked around the mat with my hands raised high and let out a primal scream. That outburst was me thinking: “Finally!” As I came off the mat, I was greeted by one of the Olympic coaches and longtime friend Irwin Cohen. I then went right in the stands to Teri, my girlfriend at the time. We embraced and shared a congratulatory kiss that was replayed over and over on Japanese TV. The final was against Hidehiko Yoshida (Japan), who had plowed though the other side of the draw. I was very nervous, but it was a healthy nervous. My confidence was high. I started the match strong and took the early lead. I knew he would come back at me harder after he was penalized for passivity. I withstood his barrage of attacks, but not before getting scored on (a yuko, or partial score) to fall behind. I felt that he was starting to fade after he spent so much energy to take the lead. Like the previous three bouts, in which I also had trailed, I was sure I would come back. But just then, Yoshida maneuvered his way into a very good position. He knew I was in trouble and blasted in with his trademark uchimata (an inner-leg throw). It was over. At that moment, of course I was devastated. I was so close to winning a gold. Still, I knew the silver was an incredible achievement. The next nine days were heaven, but my dream quickly became a nightmare. I had headed back to Washington, D.C., for the Olympians luncheon at the White House and was staying at Teri’s parents’ house in Alexandria, Va., when I received word that my father, Bernie, who had remained in Spain, suffered a massive heart attack and died on his way to the closing ceremonies. He was just 49. Suddenly, my world was torn apart. I was very close to my father, and getting closer because of all of his involvement in my judo career. My dad was my travel agent, public relations man, press agent, financial advisor and videographer, among other things. In fact, one of his videos of Wurth was very valuable in creating a strategy to beat him. It took some time, but I put the pieces back together and regained the passion to make two more Olympic teams. And I went on to develop one of the top programs in the country, the Jason Morris Judo Center. Although the focus of the media was my success and the death of my father, my mother, Chris, was the early driving force in my career. She often gets overlooked, but I wouldn’t have accomplished anything without her getting me to practice and putting up with me for many years. My dad really came into the picture with my career later, when he realized judo was more than something I participated in. It was a livelihood. My passion for the Olympics is as strong as ever, and trying to get athletes to realize their own dreams is what drives me. There are so many phenomenal things about the Olympic Games but I must say, walking in during the opening ceremony tops them all. I was fortunate enough to walk in five of them. Not a lot moves me, but being part of those ceremonies is such an honor and privilege. Sometimes I catch myself thinking of how proud my dad was then, and how he would be now that this wonderful ride has lasted eight Olympiads. Jason Morris competed in four Olympics in judo, winning a silver medal in the 1992 Games. He and his wife, Teri, run the Jason Morris Judo Center in Glenville.

Published in Sports

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  • Saratoga County Court  Kathleen M. Callanan, 62, of Saratoga Springs, was sentenced to 1 year in local jail, after pleading to felony grand larceny.  Cassandra R. Barden, 38, homeless, was sentenced to 1-1/2 to 3 years incarceration after pleading to felony attempted assault, charged in Milton.  Ashley Vetrano, 35, of Glens Falls, pleaded to felony robbery, charged in Moreau. Sentencing May 23.  Gabrielle Montanye, 63, of Stillwater, was sentenced to 5 years probation, after pleading to felony attempted identity theft, charged in Ballston Spa.  Daniel J. Koenig, III, 53, of Round Lake, was sentenced to 2 to 4 years incarceration, after…

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