World champion athlete Judd Biasiotto keynote speaker at fundraiser

ALBANY — As he talks about Friday’s New Jersey Kettlebell Love Foundation benefit for Adela Castaneda, Judd Biasiotto deftly deflects any credit for the event away from himself.

“This is about Adela, and it’s about Scott Evans, Bob Brooks, Robert Brooks, Larry Valis, Tony Powell and Dr. Bert Pridgen,” Biasiotto, a world-champion powerlifter and a world-renowned speaker, said of the benefit scheduled to reward the mother of four in her time of need for some of the good she’s done for others. “I don’t want this in any way to be about me.

“I’m way too overrated.”

Biasiotto’s words are true … in the way calling Lebron James a pretty good basketball player marks him as overrated.

A professor at Albany State University for almost four decades, Biasotto is a legend in the powerlifting world, a man named by influential Powerlifting USA magazine in 2000 as one of the Top 50 lifters of the millenium. During his career, Biasiotto set 101 state, 47 regional, 23 American and 14 world records. During his career he won 11 world titles and four world championships, including the 2000 World Open Bodybuilding Championship. That latter title? Biasiotto won it as a 58-year-old, the oldest person ever to claim the crown.

His athletic accomplishments aside, Biasiotto is equally as well-known as a motivational speaker and author. He’s surpassed 500 talks and seminars, written 94 books — some of which became best-sellers in Europe — and penned just shy of 1,000 magazine articles.

But Biasotto, who was inducted into the Valley, Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend, says he’s proudest of another of his life’s passions. After establishing Dr. Judd’s Love Foundation in the mid-1980s to help raise $139,000 to buy one of his Albany State University students a handicap-accessible van, Biasotto — and cohorts like the six mentioned above, as well as corporate giants Tom Dorsey and Debbie Sample — dedicated much of his time to raising funds to help deserving recipients.

“The night that we gave that van to Kenny Blanchard at St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, there were about 500 people present and there was not a dry eye in the house,” Biasiotto said. “I felt better about that than any world championship I ever won.

“But what I want people to understand is that this has never been about me. It’s about people like Tom Dorsey, Debbie Sample, Scott Evans, Bob and Robert Brooks, Larry Valis, Tony Powell, Bert Pridgen and Dr. Tom Ungarino. They’re the ones who’ve worked behind the scenes to make the Love Foundation a success. And they do it completely out of a desire to help worthy people. Bob (Brooks) has threatened to kill me if I mention his generosity, but I think the community should know how much these people give back.”

With Evans, a computer specialist, contributing his expertise, Ungarino and Pridgen helping Biasiotto cope with the ravages of a disease (Duchenne, a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy) that has left Biasiotto in a constant fight for his life, and the other “super six” making monetary contributions and offering behind-the-scenes work, Dr. Judd’s Love Foundation has raised more than $1.7 million since Biasiotto founded it to help Blanchard.

Friday’s fundraiser for Castaneda, which is scheduled to be held at the 226 W. Broad Ave. Nelson Tift Building, is being sponsored by Tony’s Gym and Brooks Furniture. The recipient, a mother of four, recently underwent lifesaving surgery, which was performed by her doctor for free. But hospital expenses have left her family in a financial bind.

Castaneda, despite a modest existence, is widely known for helping others socially and financially.

“If anyone deserves help, it’s Adela, for all the kindness and love she has given to others,” Biasiotto said.

Despite its importance in his life, Biasiotto has passed on directorship of Dr. Judd’s Love Foundation to the New Jersey Kettlebell Love Foundation. He simply doesn’t have the energy to keep up the requirements of the nonprofit, and he wants to see its works continue.

“Sports are overrated,” Biasiotto said. “Being able to slam dunk a basketball or hit a home run are significant skills, but they’re not really that relevant. So records and athletic feats are really not that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things. It’s the giving of yourself, the helping others, that enriches your life.”

Friday’s “Give a Gift of Love” event will kick off at 6 p.m. Tickets are $50 and tables $400. Information is available by calling (229) 638-0368 or online at [email protected].