Matteo Garbelotto-Benzon, campus adjunct professor and researcher in forest pathology, was recovering from a ski accident while on a summer holiday in Sardinia, when a puppy appeared on his doorstep. The puppy, adopted and later named S\u2019Abba, would become his service dog, helping him regain the ability to walk, return to skiing and resume his work in the forests.<\/p>\n
Years later, Garbelotto-Benzon will carry the Olympic torch alongside S\u2019Abba in Canazei, Italy, on Wednesday as part of the relay leading up to the 2026 Winter Olympics, co-hosted by Milan and Cortina.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge recognition of what these animals can do for us,\u201d Garbelotto-Benzon said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting that they let (S\u2019abba) walk because they understand that she\u2019s not just a dog. She\u2019s somebody that makes it possible for people like me who have disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garbelotto-Benzon noted he feels a \u201cstrong connection\u201d to these Olympics, having grown up in a mountain community in the Dolomites near where the games are being held. Surrounded by forests and mountains, he discovered his passion for skiing and for studying trees in his community.<\/p>\n
But in 2018, while skiing in Mammoth Lakes, he slammed into a cliff and cracked his fifth vertebra. Garbelotto-Benzon stated he was in \u201cexcruciating pain\u201d and spent several months in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was key for my job. I have a lot of research studies going on in the state, and they\u2019re not always near parking lots or a road, so sometimes, I\u2019ve got to walk miles in the forest to get to my study sites, or ski to them,\u201d Garbelotto-Benzon said. \u201cWith my condition, it had become really difficult, if not impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when he adopted S\u2019Abba. With the help of a trainer, Garbelotto-Benzon said the dog was able to support his walking, helping him maintain balance on uneven ground.<\/p>\n
He noted that to an outsider, he may seem \u201cfully functional,\u201d but said that having the support of a service dog has allowed him to \u201clive life more fully.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very much in tune,\u201d Garbelotto-Benzon said. \u201cWhen you break one side of your spine, you lose your sense of balance. You want to activate your muscles on one side, and you really can\u2019t, and so that\u2019s kind of what she does. She pulls me. She knows when the pressure on the leash goes down or up, and she makes sure that I don\u2019t fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that S\u2019Abba\u2019s support has been critical for continuing his work in locations surrounded by rugged terrain. Garbelotto-Benzon traveled across steep coastal mountains for his research on sudden oak death, a major disease destroying oak trees in coastal California.<\/p>\n
He discovered the pathogen causing the disease alongside Dave Rizzo, a professor in the department of plant pathology at UC Davis. The two met in graduate school several decades ago and have now worked together for about 25 years, according to Rizzo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just great to see (that he\u2019s been selected to carry the Olympic torch),\u201d Rizzo said. \u201cHe had all those health issues a few years ago, so a lot of us were really worried, but I\u2019m so happy that he\u2019s come through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the torch relay, the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games will kick off with an opening ceremony on Feb. 6, broadcast live on NBC and Peacock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matteo Garbelotto-Benzon, campus adjunct professor and researcher in forest pathology, was recovering from a ski accident while on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4173,74325,74323,18854,74322,57223,143,145,144,74328,74326,74324,74327,8229],"class_list":["post-150011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-cortina","tag-dave-rizzo","tag-mammoth-lakes","tag-matteo-garbelotto-benzon","tag-milan","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-plant-pathology","tag-sabba","tag-sardinia","tag-sudden-oak-death","tag-uc-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}