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Dream Big, Play Hard: Aerin Frankel’s Olympic Journey

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PHOTO COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

Women’s ice hockey has been gaining in popularity ever since the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was launched in 2023. Today, the PWHL consists of eight teams and this summer it will expand to twelve teams. With the US women’s ice hockey winning a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Milan this year, it is an exciting time to be a female player on the ice. And one of the most lauded performances at the Olympics this past February belonged to Chappaqua’s own Aerin Frankel, the team’s goalie.

Frankel’s love affair with the ice first blossomed as a three-year-old when her parents, Peter and Deborah, took her to “public skate” sessions at the Westchester Skating Academy (WSA) in Elmsford. There was no equipment or organized hockey playing during these sessions. Her mother knew how to ice skate and came from a family of ardent NY Rangers fans. At first, her parents enrolled her in figure skating. But Frankel soon saw ice hockey games being played and wanted in on the action. She resisted the figure skating lessons and begged her parents to let her try ice hockey. They soon relented and at the age of six, Frankel started to play ice hockey for the WSA’s House League, a non-competitive entry to the sport. “The House League was kind of like an intro to hockey and I just loved it,” recalls Frankel. “I kept playing and then I played on multiple House League teams because I wanted to get better and spend more time at the rink.”

Soon Frankel was playing as the only girl on the Westchester Vipers, a travel team based out of WSA. “It was a lot of fun. I have so many memories of when I was little playing for the Westchester Vipers and making friends with all the boys on my team. They treated me just like I was one of them,” notes Frankel. To this day, Frankel still stays in touch with some of the Vipers and in fact is best friends with a former Viper, Anthony Stark who played Division 1 ice hockey for Colgate University. “He’s like a brother to me. I made so many friendships during my time with the Vipers.” She also credits coach Kevin Hagen from WSA who coached Frankel and Stark for almost a decade.

Frankel, who grew up in Hardscrabble Lake attended Roaring Brook Elementary and Bell Middle School as well as her freshman year at Horace Greeley High School. She always felt supported by her teachers. “I think all I wanted to do was to talk about hockey and to tell everyone that I was a hockey player, and that’s how I was known by most of my classmates.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

Her involvement with the sport meant a lot of sacrifices. “I missed a lot of birthday parties on the weekends, school dances and socials but I knew I had to do that to pursue my dreams with hockey.” It also meant a huge time and financial commitment for her family, but they knew how serious she was about the sport. Eventually, WSA started a girls’ ice hockey team also named the Vipers and Frankel joined that too while still playing as the only girl on her original team of the Vipers.

Playing Goalie

Deciding to play goalie, arguably the most high-pressure position on the team, wasn’t taken lightly. But something that Frankel was passionate about trying. Her parents at first encouraged her to play out of the net in other positions and only let her become goalie after three years of playing.

“Even at a young age, I loved how goalies are always in the net. You’re not constantly on and off the ice, like the other players and I just love being the last line of defense. I think the position is like an expression of my personality. I’m kind of a free-spirit, wild, adventurous person, and the position resembles that.”

Frankel credits much of her success to her parents’ support. Another difficult decision her family had to face was leaving Greeley to attend boarding school where she could pursue ice hockey more rigorously. After freshman year, Frankel attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Fairbault, Minnesota where she honed her skills. “This put me on the best path to play the most hockey at the highest level.” She then attended Northeastern University in Boston, where she became the most decorated NCAA ice hockey player in the school’s history while pursuing a combined major of Criminal Justice and Psychology with a minor in Spanish. In her fifth year of hockey eligibility at Northeastern, she earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership.

Frankel with her father, Peter
Frankel with her father, Peter
PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON

Today Frankel lives in Boston serving as goalie for the Boston Fleet, a PWHL team. This interview was conducted during a brief hiatus in her off-season. During the summer, she spent some time traveling with friends to Newport, the Bahamas and Florida. At the end of the summer, she is looking forward to speaking at the United States Tennis Association coaching symposium held during the US Open in New York.

Even though she will be off the ice for a few weeks, Frankel will still do interval training, yoga and biking to stay in shape. She also has a few nagging overuse injuries that she can devote more time to with physical therapy. Playing hockey non-stop during June 2025 leading up to the Olympics has been taxing. “You don’t really have time to rest during the season, because it’s just go, go, go. It’s my job to take good care of myself and train, even on the days where it’s harder or something’s bothering me. I obviously still have to show up to work which is just part of being in the professional league.”

When Frankel looks back on her journey to making the Winter Olympics, she notes that “It is an incredible honor. Making the national team in 2019 was such a surreal moment for me. To put on that USA hockey jersey and to be living out the dream I had.”

“If you had asked me 15 years ago, if I thought I would participate in the Olympics, let alone play for Team USA, I would have thought you were crazy. It has been a long time coming, but it’s just very rewarding given all the dedication to my sport and the commitment,” she continues.

PHOTO COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

Going for the Gold

Frankel believes that winning the gold medal with her team was a dream come true for her. “Having my family there beside me to celebrate it was one of the most special things. They have sacrificed so much for me to be where I am today and having them there was a full circle moment. In a career, there are many ups and downs, and I feel lucky to have the best support system always by my side.”

“I definitely felt so much love and support from back home as well. Seeing the watch parties in Westchester and receiving so many messages from prior coaches made me feel like I had so many people behind me.”

“I remember the moment we won the game I was in a bit of disbelief about what had just happened. I never lost any doubt in my teammates, but the feeling of winning that gold medal and hearing our anthem play was truly unbelievable,” she says with a hint of awe still in her voice.

While fans get to watch the Olympics for three weeks, many don’t realize that athletes like Frankel have been as she says “scratching and clawing at this Olympics to crack the roster for four years.” In USA Hockey, every year you have a world championship with the same opponents like Canada, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland competing. This November, Frankel is hopeful that she will compete in the world championship in Denmark. The player pool is bigger at the beginning of those four years (known as a quad). There’s a lot of players who get cut from the Olympic team along the way.

PHOTO COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

“The camaraderie as a team comes from all the time spent together during that quad leading up to the Olympics. You have four years of training camps, scrimmages, World Championships with a lot of ups and downs. You can’t play hockey all day every day, so you really get to know each other and spend time away from the ice.”

In addition to attending the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPYs) awards presented by ESPN this July, Frankel also went to watch the PWHL draft in Detroit to cheer on her teammates who will get drafted from the national team into the PWHL. As the PWHL expands, each team can only protect three players from being taken during expansion. Frankel’s status as a protected player means that she will remain playing for the Boston Fleet. “It’s where I love to play, and I have a lot of teammates here that I really enjoy playing with.”

Knowing that she is on the world stage, Frankel is acutely aware of what a privilege it is and how younger fans look up to her. “I’ve seen just how much an impact you can have on people, and it is really special. It’s something I don’t take lightly at all. I represent my hometown, my country, my team. It makes such a difference in people’s lives when you have meaningful interactions with them. A lot of people in our league are always eager to interact with fans and give back to our communities to help grow women’s hockey. It has grown tremendously over the past few years, but it’s still growing at this point.”

Besides spending hours on the ice, Frankel is a self-confessed foodie, and Caesar salad is her favorite food. She even has an Instagram account rating different ones which started as a passion project in 2024. The account dubbed PainbyRomaine started out small with just a few thousand followers but during the Olympics it gained traction and today she has over 70,000 followers. “I get sent a lot of croutons and salad dressing,” she quips.

PHOTO COURTESY OF USA HOCKEY

But there are two local food items named in her honor that she can’t wait to try on her next visit to Westchester. The Hometown Hero consisting of romaine, hot honey, Buffalo chicken cutlet, crouton crumbles and Caesar salad dressing wrapped in a parmesan blanket is available at Bobo’s Cafe in Chappaqua and Rocky’s Deli in Millwood added a chicken Caesar wrap with bacon and croutons to celebrate her success. We are hoping they remain as menu items as she clenches another gold medal for Team USA at the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.

Chappaqua Resident Aims for Ultimate Goal

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Rauch at the opening ceremony of the WFDF 2016 World Ultimate Championship in London, England

Robert Rauch was an 18-year-old freshman at Williams College in Massachusetts when he began playing Ultimate Frisbee. Ultimate was just a decade old at the time, and a classmate had discovered the sport at nearby Hampshire.

Rauch, a Chappaqua resident known in the disc community by the nickname ‘Nob,’ spent the next two decades on the Ultimate field and the last three decades advancing the sport on the administrative side. He’s played in the first Ultimate world championship, met his wife on the field, and twice served as president of the World Flying Disc Federation, the position he holds today. His current mission–which he has made a focus of his current term as WFDF president–is to get the sport into the summer Olympics. “That would be a milestone that I could rest my laurels on,” Rauch tells Inside Press.

Rauch began his career on the Ultimate field in 1976. He had played high school soccer in Connecticut and was looking for a new field sport to try out. With Ultimate, everything clicked; it involved even more running than his former pastime with the added intensity of non-stop action. At the same time, the sport retained a measure of mellow “zaniness,” with referees unnecessary and players making their own calls.

“It is not ‘win at all costs,’” he explains. “You need to respect your opponent. You need to excel within the rules of the game.”

Rauch spent the rest of his college years playing for a club team. After graduating from college, he moved to Chicago for work and played for Windy City, a local team there. In 1982, he played in his first U.S. National Championship.

And then, this: Rauch helped bring Windy City back to the National Championship the following year, this time winning the title. The win qualified the team for the first WFDF World Ultimate Championship Tournaments, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, where Windy City became the tournament’s inaugural world champions.

Rauch went on to win four more world championships and five more national titles, also playing for teams in Boston and New York. In 1994, he won the title as a member of the U.S. All-Star team.

Rauch’s contributions on the administrative side have left a mark on the sport–and in 2006, they earned him induction into the Ultimate Hall of Fame. By the mid-1980s, Rauch believed Ultimate and other disc sports were growing rapidly but the bodies governing the sport had failed to keep up. Rauch, who earned his Master’s degree in finance and international business from Northwestern University and is now partner at $6 billion investment firm Gramercy Financial Group, felt a “sense of duty.”

“The people who were involved were very well-meaning but really didn’t have any business acumen,” Rauch recalls. “I felt that if the organization was going to keep up with the level of competition, it really needed to up its game.”

Rauch was elected as the national director of the Ultimate Players Association in 1987, serving in that position until 1990. He also took over as chair of the Ultimate committee for the World Flying Disc Federation, then as the federation’s president in 1992.

Rauch focused on beefing up the sport’s organizational makeup.

He raised dues at the UPA (now called USA Ultimate), leading revenues to nearly triple. He took a number of additional steps to increase the sport’s legitimacy–he set up an 800 number, for example, and established an insurance program.

“It was was bringing in more enthusiastic people within the infrastructure of the organization,” Rauch says. “It was getting financial resources.”

Already working long hours for his day job, Rauch’s disc-related activities–done without pay–amounted nearly to having a second full-time commitment. After his first of three children was born in 1994, Rauch–whose playing days were largely behind him due to a knee injury–took a break from the sport to focus on his career and his family. In 1995 he moved with his wife–Katie Shields Rauch, whom he first met at the 1989 World Championships–and 1-year-old daughter to Chappaqua.

All In The Family

All three of Rauch’s children graduated from Horace Greeley High School. His oldest daughter, Kristen, graduated from Greeley in 2012 and played Ultimate at the University of Delaware, where she graduated in 2016. Her sister, Gwen, is now the captain of her club team at Penn State after graduating from Greeley in 2015. Rauch’s son and youngest child, Erik, graduated from Greeley last fall and is considering taking up Ultimate at Northeastern.

Olympic Dreams

During his first term as WFDF president, Rauch submitted disc sports as candidates to the International World Games Association. Rauch calls IWGA the ‘minor leagues’ of the Olympics–sports that are popular across the globe but not featured in the Olympics take part in their own quadrennial exhibition. World Games sports range from billiards to lacrosse and sport climbing. In 2001, flying disc was introduced as a World Games sport.

Rauch ran again for president of WFDF in 2011 and has served in the position since. In his current term, he has focused largely on paving the way for disc to become an Olympic sport. In May 2013, the International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized disc as a sport, with the full recognition coming two years later. Disc is now one of 37 sports recognized by the IOC but not featured in the Olympic games.

Until recently, the path to the Olympics was significantly more difficult.

Every summer games featured 28 sports, so in order for a new sport to make it, an established pastime had to get the ax. But starting in 2020, the games will include several “floating” sports, in which new sports will be eligible each year based in part on the host city. “Our view is that our best path is probably through this host city designation,” says Rauch.

With disc sports popular in more than 100 countries from Canada to the Middle East, and Ultimate now featured on ESPN networks, Rauch believes inclusion in the Olympics would be a natural final step in his decades-long quest to bring the sport to the world stage.

“I’m trying to finish the job I started,” he acknowledges.

A Wonderful Chance to Learn from Olympic Swimmer Ariana Kukors!

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ariana

By Susan Draper

As parents of a competitive swimmer, we had heard that attending the Olympic Swimming Trials is incredibly exciting because it allows the spectators to see the Olympic team as it is formed.

It was an amazing trip, one beyond our wildest dreams! Because we purchased a special package through the USA Swimming Foundation – partly the cost of the event tickets and partly a donation – we received numerous perks during our trip: We had an opportunity to sit with Rowdy Gaines as he announced events, took a behind the scenes tour of the broadcasting center, enjoyed both a fun swim with some Olympians and a cocktail hour with autograph opportunities, had ever-changing amazing event seats alongside USA Foundation members and/or Olympians plus much more. One day we had the unique opportunity to have lunch with some new Olympians.

IMG_6225Ariana Kukors was the absolute highlight of that lunch– she simply sparkles! She told us the most heartfelt story of the days leading up to her monumental swim, and described the exciting moment when she realized that she made one of the required top two spots to become an Olympian. We made an instant connection with her and, though we’ve only seen her twice since June of 2012, we’ve kept in close contact.

When we met Ariana she was already the world record holder for the 200 IM, set in the 2009 World Aquatic Championships in Rome. In addition to her Gold at that meet, she had also won a silver medal at the World Championships, and, based on her performance, was named the American Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine. That is pretty amazing, and in that fight for an Olympic team spot in 2012, she candidly told us that part of herself pep talk was to remind herself of the fact that she held the World Record. One of those spots was hers- she just had to swim her best to claim it.

Any age group swimmer knows that swimming your best time or achieving a personal best time can be a daunting task. There are no guarantees. It requires an efficient start, turns that are spot on, swimming one’s best strokes, the proper finish and the mental fortitude to pull it all together. Ariana has won seven medals in major international competition and 22 National Titles, but she isn’t the typical super tall swimmer with height on her side. She has developed some strong strategies and techniques to help make all of her talents – beautiful strokes and execution, along with utter determination and a belief in herself- come together to achieve her dreams.

It has been our dream to have Ariana here for a visit, and help coordinate events for both swimmers and non-swimmers alike. We are thrilled to announce that she will soon spend two days in Westchester, inspiring young athletes to be their very best: On September 26th from 4-6 p.m., Ariana will offer a “Dream Clinic” at the Bristal in Armonk. This event will be for teens from ages 12-18 looking for tips and strategies to make their dreams become realities.

On September 27th Ariana will offer swimming workshops in the pool at the Boys and Girls Club in Mt. Kisco. Because she would like to offer a very “hands on” clinic, there will be multiple timeslots –  Novice swimmers 9-11:30 a.m., Junior level swimmers 12-2:30 p.m. and Senior level swimmers 3:-5:30 p.m.. To sign up for either of these events, please email Arikukors@gmail.com. Registration and payment ($45 for the Armonk/Bristal event, $65 for the Boys/Girls Club Mt. Kisco event) must be completed in advance.

Olympic Gymnast John Orozco: From World Cup to London and Beyond

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All photos courtesy of World Cup Gymnastics
All photos courtesy of World Cup Gymnastics

An Olympic Journey

By Debra Hand

For many children, gymnastics are a fun diversion during the toddler years, transitioning into developmental classes teaching basic skills and building strength, flexibility and agility.   Many eventually drift towards other activities ranging from soccer and baseball to music and art, though some qualify for team gymnastics and compete in meets near and far.  The time commitment is significant, and the pressures to compete at the highest levels while maintaining schoolwork can be substantial.

John Orozco took it even further–all the way to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

With the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi behind us, sports enthusiasts now look towards the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro and back towards the last Summer Games in London.  John is more interested than most–after ascending to the pinnacle of his sport but falling short of his goal of an Olympic medal, 2016 represents another chance for glory.

And it all began right here, at World Cup Gymnastics in Chappaqua.

A Prodigy from the Bronx

John’s background and the sacrifices that he and his family made for his gymnastics success were well-documented during the 2012 Olympics by media outlets ranging from the New York Times to Sports Illustrated.  On the Team USA website, John is self-described as an extremely strong child with a black belt at Tae Kwan Do, able to do flips and splits.  His father William, a Department of Sanitation worker, saw a flyer for free gymnastics lessons in Manhattan, and the family began commuting to the city from their home in the Bronx, but John’s mom Damaris quickly saw that John was at a higher level.

In between competitions, Orozco trains and mentors children at World Cup.
In between competitions, Orozco trains and mentors children at World Cup.

“We realized that John needed more,” she said, recalling that they were impressed by the professionalism and facilities of World Cup in Chappaqua, which they had visited for a competition. Then-head coach Carl Schrade took on eight-year-old John immediately during the 2000-2001 season.

“During his first tryout, he showed us that he was a powerful tumbler. We could see he had so much raw talent from the day he stepped into the gym,” said current World Cup Gymnastics Director/Boys’ Head Coach Jason Hebert. “The more difficult the skill was, the more he aspired to learn it.”

John, now 21, recalls that splitting his time between the Bronx and Chappaqua was initially disconcerting; he was, in his own words, “used to a different demographic,” and the clientele at World Cup was out of his comfort zone. He is, however, very glad that his family chose World Cup: aside from the obvious benefits of training, “being exposed to the two different types of atmospheres opened my eyes up to the world,” he said.

“Training at World Cup was an escape from the real world,” John recalled. “Going to practice was what I looked forward to all day.”

Damaris drove John an hour or so every day to and from the Bronx, sitting in a folding chair to watch him practice from the upper level balcony; she notes that to this day, she has trouble watching him actually compete.  When finances became an issue and an impediment to John’s future at World Cup, the gym, recognizing his potential, waived the costs of gym time and lessons.  Damaris said that Carl and the former gym owner assured that John would be “taken care of,” and the financial accommodations enabled the family to afford sending and accompanying young John to meets, often in their mattress-equipped van to save money. Damaris would volunteer at the gym however possible, mending mats, shopping for and preparing food for meets, and stapling meet programs. John himself found time to work World Cup birthday parties in between training sessions.

A Meteoric Rise

john-orozco10According to Hebert, 10-year old John joined the USA Gymnastics Future Stars Program geared towards the development of potential members of the U.S. Junior National Development Team. Head Coach Schrade trained John two or three mornings, in addition to his regular workouts six to seven afternoons, every week, each workout lasting four hours.

“The extra morning training helped John with the core foundation which Carl was a master at teaching,” said Hebert, who then worked with John evenings on “high risk” skills.  John agrees that the coaching combination of Carl and Jason was “key to him becoming an elite gymnast.”

“Carl took me under his wing and helped me establish all of the fundamentals [in technique and form] that I have today, and Jason pushed me to perfect higher-level skills,” he said.

John’s natural ability and intense work resulted in a 2004 Future Stars National Championship at the age of 12. As one of the top 14 gymnasts in the country, John qualified for the Junior National Team and attended training camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs several times a year.

In 2006, Hebert became John’s primary coach, both at World Cup and for his Team USA competitions. The hard work paid off: John won the USA National Championship in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Last Year at World Cup Interrupted

With a fourth consecutive national title in his sights in 2010–and the lure of the 2012 Olympics beyond–during his senior year in high school, John suffered a serious setback when he ruptured his Achilles tendon during the USA Championships.

To no one’s surprise, John refused to give up, opting for reconstructive surgery on his ankle and permanently relocating to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado to have access to the best rehabilitation and training services available.

To London and Beyond

“John’s new coach was a former Olympic champion [Ukranian Vitaly Marinitch], so we knew he would be in good hands,” said Hebert. Indeed, John qualified for the 2011 World Championships, won a bronze medal with Team USA and placed fifth in the all-around. Only one year later, he regained the USA Championship and qualified for the 2012 Olympics.

In July of 2012, John’s World Cup colleagues eagerly watched the boy they had seen develop into the best in the country compete on his sport’s largest stage: the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London. Unfortunate errors on the pommel horse caused him to fall to fifth place in the artistic team all-around and eighth place in the individual all-around, dashing his hopes for a medal.

In October 2012, John suffered another serious injury, tearing his ACL and meniscus. Out of action for 10 months, John rebounded later in 2013, when he was the U.S. parallel bars and high bar silver medalist and won the bronze for the parallel bars at the World Championships.

Still Looking For Gold

John has had a good start to 2014, winning the all-around at the Houston National Invitational after placing first in the parallel bars and pommel horse, and gearing up to compete in the Winter Cup in Las Vegas and American Cup in North Carolina in late February and early March.  While he said he has many goals in the near future, he admitted, “every day at practice [the 2016 Summer Olympics] are in the back of my mind.”

His family and World Cup coaches are incredibly proud of what John has accomplished, and are confident that he will return to the next Summer Olympic Games in two years. He continues to work hard, and according to Damaris, in between his own training and competitions, earns money by training younger children at the facility. Damaris is especially proud of the kind and caring young man that her son has become.

“He has a big heart,” she said, describing John’s desire to give back, visit hospitalized children and donate his time. Scheduling and financial constraints only enable him to make it home to the Bronx once or twice a year, and he cannot always fit in a visit to Chappaqua. He does speak with his former coaches, however, and even saw Carl Schrade at the recent competition in Houston.

“John’s goal is to become an Olympic champion in 2016 and beyond,” said Hebert, “but even though he is a gymnastics celebrity throughout the world, he still calls World Cup his home.”

Read more about John Orozco and his accomplishments at  www.usagym.org. For more information about World Cup Gymnastics and its programs, visit  www.worldcupgymnastics.com.

Debra Hand is a longtime contributor and editor for Inside Chappaqua.