A simple mouse click changed Tom Santagato’s life forever.
The flick of a finger led the 26-year-old Astoria native from his teaching job to lying on a sled hurtling himself down an icy mountain at more than 70 miles an hour. Santagato is currently the No. 7-ranked athlete on the U.S. skeleton team. He has a solid chance to make the 2014 Olympics squad headed to Sochi, Russia.
“I haven’t regretted it a day in my life,” said Santagato, who will be competing in the National Championships the first weekend of March. “I had a well-paying job. I had everything that I needed. I had a brand new car and everything, but I was unhappy because I wasn’t really doing something that I loved.”
He was on a summer school prep period in 2008 when he went to check the internet for the medal count of the Beijing Summer Games. A recruiting ad for the U.S. bobsledding and skeleton teams appeared on the screen. Santagato clicked it after remembering watching skeleton’s return at the 2002 Winter Games.
“I was pretty much the size that they were looking for,” said the 5-foot-9 Santagato, who played defensive back at St. Francis Prep and football and lacrosse at Springfield College. “So because I had nothing better to do and I was in summer school I filled this thing out.”
Just a few months later, after forgetting ever filling out the application, he received an invitation. The goal-oriented Santagato took a week off from his job as a physical education teacher at PS 177, a special needs school in Fresh Meadows, and was at the Olympic Training Facility in Lake Placid.
“It was terrifying,” Santagato said of his first run. “I’m not going to lie like I’m a tough guy. It was scary.”
So was the choice he would be put in position to make. Following a few days of runs moving incrementally up the mountain, he was told by U.S. Development Team coach Don Hass that if he dedicated himself full time he could be one of the squad’s best in a few years. Just three athletes make the Olympic team.
“With Tom as soon as he took the ice everything started clicking right away,” Hass said. “I could tell right then that he was going to be a pretty good slider.”
It wasn’t something he jumped right into, but took the time to talk it over with family and mull his options. It came down to the fact that he didn’t have anything tying him to home like a wife and kid or mortgage to pay and he wanted to be back in a team environment. Santagato made the decision to take the sport seriously in the fall of 2009.
“You shelter and nurture your children their whole lives to make sure that they are out of danger and here he is hurtling himself head first down an icy mountain,” his mother Liz Santagato said. “That part is a little hard for a mom to take.”
But with the full support of his family he pursued his dream.
Leaving behind his job and being away from home from October to April brought about other challenges. Only the top six athletes receive any type of financial aid and sponsors are needed to help finance travel and other expenses. Santagato works as a waiter at the White Face Lodge in Lake Placid and as a personal trainer at Matrix Fitness back home to make ends meet. Liz Santagato felt like her son didn’t feel worthy enough early on to go solicit sponsors until he got himself established.
“You are pretty much on your own,” she said. “It’s a bit of a sacrifice knowing that nothing could come of this.”
Added Hass: “He is going to need help financially to make that next big step.”
Tom Santagato is determined to make that happen. He is in a serious weightlifting program and is looking to improve his steering and the effectiveness of his 30-yard sprint start that comes before throwing himself onto the sled. He finished as high as second and no lower than 11th while competing in North America last year during his first competitive season and plans on traveling to Europe for races next season.
By 2014 he hopes to be in Russia competing for gold.
“I have some work to do, but I feel pretty good about the position I’m in,” Santagato said. “I feel comfortable telling people that I have a realistic shot at it. … The fact that I do is the most awesome thing in the world.”