Matteo Garbelotto will walk through Canazei on January 28 carrying the Olympic torch, and he won't be alone. S'Abba, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever mix trained as a service dog, will walk beside him — possibly the first time a service dog has accompanied someone with a mobility disability as an Olympic torch bearer.
Garbelotto, a UC Berkeley forest pathology researcher, was chosen as one of about 10,000 people selected to carry the flame during its 63-day, 7,500-mile relay from Olympia, Greece, to Milan, Italy, which will co-host the 2026 Winter Games with Cortina. But this relay carries particular weight for him. The route takes him through the Dolomites, the Italian mountain region where he grew up.
From accident to the torch
In 2018, a ski accident left Garbelotto cycling between a wheelchair and mobility challenges. That's when S'Abba arrived. The service dog didn't just help him regain physical mobility — S'Abba became the bridge that let him return to fieldwork, to the research that had defined his career, to the mountains themselves.
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Start Your News Detox"I am so proud that S'Abba may be the first service dog to help a person with a mobility disability walk with the torch for the Olympics," Garbelotto says. "It says so much about the importance of these companions in the world of sports."
The homecoming runs deeper than geography. Garbelotto's entire career has circled back to the Dolomites. As a forestry expert, he's spent decades studying the region's ecosystems — the same forests and wildlife he explored as a child. He remembers trips with his father to see edelweiss blooms on a high mountain pass, a location he still keeps secret. That world, which seemed closed off after his accident, is now where he'll carry the Olympic flame.
"My whole life has been about growing up in the forest and the mountains, and I'm so grateful that I have been successful in doing what I love and able to transfer my passion to California," he says.
Garbelotto has also set up a GoFundMe to support older guide dogs and service dogs that often end up in shelters — extending the ripple of what S'Abba has made possible in his own life.
