MORGANTOWN – Ten years ago, Greg Sabak was waiting for a phone call that would determine whether he would live long enough to watch his son reach adulthood.
Now, he’s winning gold medals.
The Morgantown resident returned from the 2026 Transplant Games of America in Denver with two medals, a gold in men’s doubles bowling and a silver in singles, but the hardware was never the point.
For Sabak, every frame bowled and every milestone reached is another opportunity to honor the stranger whose final act gave him a second chance.
“I go out, and I try to live life to the fullest,” Sabak said. “I do everything I can to show that the donor gave a great gift. What you want to do is honor their gift.”
That perspective has defined the last decade of Sabak’s life.
His journey began on what should have been a routine first day of work as a pharmacist in November 2000. A mandatory stress test instead revealed heart failure. Over the next 15 years, his condition steadily worsened. Activities most people take for granted, like driving, traveling, bowling, and eventually working, slipped away as his heart weakened.
By 2014, physicians told him he had end-stage heart failure, and a transplant was his only hope.
He waited more than two years before the life-changing call finally came in 2016. Sabak underwent a heart transplant on July 24 of that year. This month, he will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of his new lease on life, a second birthday, if you will.
The surgery gave Sabak far more than a healthy heart.
It gave him time to experience things in life he once thought he wouldn’t have the time for. Things like attending graduations and weddings, watching your kids grow up and become adults, and purchasing your first home.
“Those are special milestones that, if not for organ donation, I would never have been able to experience,” Sabak said.
Recovery also brought back something else he had missed: competition.
After joining Team Alleghenies, which represents transplant recipients, donor families, and supporters from western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Sabak discovered a community of people who understood exactly what a second chance means. The Transplant Games celebrate athletic achievement, but their deeper purpose is to raise awareness of organ donation while showcasing the lives made possible through transplantation.
Sabak has now competed in multiple national and international events, including the World Transplant Games in Australia in 2023, where he also medaled in bowling.
This year’s performance in Denver carried extra significance.
His gold medal in men’s doubles was his first bowling gold after four appearances at the Transplant Games, a fitting accomplishment as he approaches the 10-year anniversary of his transplant.
Yet Sabak measures success differently than most athletes.
His victories are reminders that organ donation works. They are proof that transplantation isn’t simply about extending life, but restoring it.
More than 100,000 Americans remain on the national transplant waiting list, each hoping for the same opportunity Sabak received a decade ago. One organ donor can save as many as eight lives.
Those numbers aren’t statistics to Sabak. They’re personal.
Every day he bowls, skis, drives across the country, or spends time with family is another expression of gratitude to someone he never met.
The medals hanging around his neck represent excellence in competition.
The heart beating in his chest represents something far greater.
