One of the greatest moments in Capital District sports history came on the wrestling mat. That would come in the 1984 Summer Olympics when Niskayuna's Jeff Blatnick made the region proud when he won a gold medal.
There have been dozens and dozens of wrestlers who have come out of this area and done many great things. Three of the top four on our list here did just that — one of them is still doing it — during their wrestling careers. And a fourth was a pioneer as a coach and gave so many of these athletes the chance and the knowledge to get to where they wanted to go.
Here is the list of the best in wrestling in the Capital Region. Criteria, as it has been the entire series, is that the winners have had to have been born in the area, grown up in the area or spent the majority of their life in the area. The list is presented in alphabetical order.
Jeff Blatnick
You would be hard-pressed to come up with a better story at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games than Blatnick's.
Jeff Blatnick of Niskayuna won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 (Associated Press archive)
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Gold medal winner Jeff Blatnick of Niskayuna talks with congressman Sam Stratton (D-Schenectady). (Times Union archive)
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Wrestler Jeff Blatnick wins Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984. (Times Union archive)
Local Olympic gold medalist and Greco-Roman wrestler Jeff Blatnick, whose inspiring triumph over cancer culminated with a victory at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, spoke to students at the Doane Stuart School in Albany on April 3, 2008. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union archive)
SKIP DICKSTEIN/DG
The native of Niskayuna had the country roaring when he won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling as a super heavyweight. He, along with teammate Steve Fraser, became the first Americans to win Olympic gold in Greco-Roman wrestling. Blatnick carried the U.S. flag at the closing ceremony at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Blatnick won the gold after beating Hodgkin's disease, which he was diagnosed with in 1982. Following treatment and the removal of his spleen, the disease went into remission and he was cleared to compete in the Olympics.
After he won the gold medal match over Sweden's Tomas Johansson, Blatnick fell to his knees in tears and said, "I'm a happy dude," during a TV interview.
Blatnick, who was a New York State heavyweight champion at Niskayuna in 1975, also was a three-time All-American at Springfield College. He died in 2012 at the age of 55 as a result of complications from heart surgery.
Joe DeMeo
As an athlete, DeMeo was pretty good. Besides playing football at Mont Pleasant from 1958-60, he also wrestled and won Section II titles in 1959 and 1960 at 147 pounds.
He was really good as a coach After stints as an assistant wrestling coach (Michigan State) and head coach (Stanford), he came home and became the head coach at the University at Albany, where he stayed from 1978-1995. During that time, he was also a four-time head coach and 16-time assistant coach of the U.S. Senior Greco-Roman World team. Want more? We have more. He was also the two-time head coach and two-time assistant coach of the U.S. Greco-Roman Pan Am team, two-time head coach of the U.S. Greco-Roman Junior World team and four-time assistant coach for the U.S. Greco-Roman Olympic team. He was named National Coach of the Year three times.
While coaching at UAlbany, he helped make 47 wrestlers All-Americans. His teams finished in the top 10 in the NCAA Division III Tournament eight times. Eleven of his wrestlers made it to the Olympics and two of them, including Jeff Blatnick, won gold medals.
Now 79, DeMeo still calls the Capital Region home. He lives in Niskayuna.
Nick Gwiazdowski
In high school, Gwiazdowski was a two-time state champion in the heavyweight division wrestling out of Duanesburg. In his senior year, he went 50-0 and not one of those matches went to full time. His overall record in high school was 199-2.
After a year at Binghamton University (where he was named an All-American), he transferred to North Carolina State, where he won national champi0nships in 2014 and 2015. He achieved All-American status all four years he was in college.
Since college, he has won two bronze medals at the World Championships (2017, 2018). He was on track to be part of the United States 2020 Olympic team before the Tokyo Games were postponed until next year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Gwiazdowski, 27, won a gold medal at the Pan Am Olympic Qualifier in Canada in March. That ensured the United States would have a representative at his weight of 275 pounds. To get a spot on the team, he would have had to qualify at the Olympic Trials, which were supposed to have been in April. Now, he'll adjust and look forward to 2021.
Shawn Sheldon
Born in Connecticut, Sheldon went to high school at Voorheesville and then went on to wrestle for DeMeo at UAlbany. He was a 1986 NCAA Division III national champion at 119 pounds and left UAlbany as a three-time All-American.
He wasn't finished. He finished fourth in the 1992 Olympics at Barcelona, Spain, and also competed in the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea. Sheldon won the U.S. National Greco-Roman championships nine times and was second in the U.S. Nationals eight times. In World Cup competition, he was a champion twice, winning in 1989 and 1996. He competed in the Worlds eight times.
During his career, he was a U.S. Nati0nal Team member for 13 consecutive seasons (1988-2001) and was a three-time Belt Series Recipient (1989, 1993, 1998) as USA Wrestling's outstanding wrestler of the year.
Now 55, Sheldon lives in Florida and runs SWAT (Sheldon Wrestling Academy Training).
Also considered: Joe Bena, Jon Cardi, John Chakmkas, Jeff Clark, Warren Crow, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Frank Famiano, Frank Fronhofer II, Van Fronhofer, Amy Golding (Whitbeck), Matt Herrington, David Koplovitz, Kristie Marano (Stenglein), Austin Meys, Hunter Meys, Pat Popolizio, Andy Seras.
Coming Saturday: The Captial Region's best men's and women's coaches.
twilkin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5415 • @tjwilkin
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