04/04/2025
Gabrielle Nadler dedicated her life to gymnastics and it’s led her to the highest ranks of Division III athletics. But even she was surprised to learn her success had launched her to a new, international level of competition.
The senior will leave her hometown of Potomac, Maryland, and travel to Israel this July to compete in the Maccabiah Games, an event featuring more athletes than all but two other international competitions — the Olympics and the World Cup. She’ll be one of only five female gymnasts representing the United States.
“To be able to do something like this is a dream come true,” Gabrielle said.
Held every four years, the Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, and Israeli athletes of any religion. Gabrielle will visit Israel for three weeks while competing in the games.
It will be her second visit Israel, after a previous family trip. Close to graduating from Cortland, it will also mark the end of the sport studies major's gymnastics career.
“It’s a very special place and it means a lot to me as a Jewish athlete,” Gabrielle said of the country and her selection. “Being surrounded by people who share the same faith and athletes just like me, I think it’s going to be very memorable.”
All applications to the games for gymnasts are through video submission of routines. And while Gabrielle said she was shocked to be chosen, her career at Cortland made it clear she had the ability to perform on a big stage. In 2024 she was named SUNY Scholar Athlete of the Year, earning All- National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) East Region honors while being part of a team that qualified for the NCGA Championships twice.
“It’s been incredible,” Gabrielle said about her time at Cortland. “I’ve made some of my best friends that will be forever friends. My team is a sisterhood in addition to the family I already have. And I’ve just made so many memories that I’ll never forget.”
Gabrielle trains in balance beam, floor routine and uneven bars, but says she has a special love for floor.
“I love tumbling and the skills that we’re doing,” she said. “I’m not a huge dancer, but I do like dancing to my floor music and showing off what I can do for 90 seconds in front of everyone.”
Thanks to the Maccabiah Games, Gabrielle will get one last spotlight, with her family traveling to watch the end of her competitive career almost 6,000 miles from home. It’s a long way from her first memories of gymnastics as an 8-year-old at summer camp.
Shortly after, at age 9, Gabrielle began practicing in earnest and hasn’t looked back.
“It is so challenging. It’s become a very important part of my identity, and I think it’s built my character,” Gabrielle said. “I’ve learned so many skills like time management and how to help others when they’re down — and how to pick myself back up when I’m down. I think it makes people more driven.”
Gabrielle hadn’t known she would do college athletics — let alone anything beyond — until middle school when her father took her to a meet at the University of Maryland.
“I looked at him and I said that I wanted to do that,” she said. “I started really getting serious about looking (at schools) my junior year and as soon as I walked into Cortland, I just knew it was the right choice.”
Now on the cusp of ending her career in style, she’s learned what’s needed to take a place in one of the world’s largest athletic showcases.
“Through the hard days, and even the successes, just to keep going," she explained. “You never know what’s going to happen in the future. And there’s really an endless amount of roads you can go down.”