Olympics 2024: Uniondale graduate Chris Borzor ready to fulfill lifelong dream in Paris

Dennis Kornfield’s phone rang.

Elijah Blue, his assistant coach with the Uniondale High School boys track and field team, had an opinion to relay. It was about this freshman just out for Blue’s boys cross country team.

“This is going to be a great runner,” Blue told Kornfield.

That turned out to be Chris Borzor’s lone season running cross country. But he indeed stood out in that and in his four years competing for Kornfield’s team, especially the final two. Borzor finished as Newsday’s Nassau Runner of the Year as a senior in 2018.

Kornfield wasn’t thinking “future Olympian” during those years. He said that would be “like a dream.”

But after going on to set a handful of program sprint records and earning All-America recognition at the University of Cincinnati and then running a fifth year for USC, that’s exactly what that potentially great runner has become, making a dream come to life.

Borzor moved from Haiti to Baldwin with his parents when he was about 7. Now, at 25, he will be representing Haiti in the Paris Olympics, bolting down the track on Saturday in the prelims of the 100-meter dash.

“Very proud of him,” said Kornfield, Uniondale’s head coach since 1982. “It’s incredible. This is something that you wish for, to have one of your athletes make it to that level.”

Borzor, coached these days by Cincinnati assistant Nadine Faustin-Parker, a former three-time Olympic hurdler for Haiti, qualified with a personal-best run of 10.14 seconds while finishing fifth at the NACAC (North America, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association) New Life Invitational June 16 in The Bahamas.

“It’s the realization of a lifelong dream that he’s had since he was introduced to the sport,” said Borzor’s cousin, Jonathan Prevost. “He’s worked very hard to get here.”

Prevost is seven years older than Borzor, but his younger cousin is more like a younger brother.

When Borzor and his family came to this country, they moved in with Prevost and his family. Borzor remained until he went off to college. Prevost knows how excited Borzor is at the moment.

“We talk all the time,” said Prevost, who now lives in Maryland. “I try to guide him and end up being supportive of him in everything he’s doing. So we’re very close.”

“Just being able to watch him tap into his natural-born talents and kind of become this symbol for the community and everybody in Uniondale and Baldwin means a lot to me because I know how hard he works and I know how much he put into the sport,” Prevost added. “And for him to even get to this point is icing on the cake.”

Prevost had something to do with this cake being made.

“I think he was about 10 or 11 when I signed him up for the Baldwin Blazers,” Prevost said. “I ran in high school [at Holy Trinity] and college [at Buffalo State], and he had expressed interest to me that he wanted to run.

“So I found a local club team, something to keep him occupied, keep him engaged, and he really seemed to take to it. He played football and basketball, but he really liked track.”

Borzor did ultimately play three years of varsity football.

“Very good football player; he was a defensive back,” Kornfield said. “… We were holding our breath every game because things can happen.”

Good things happened on the track.

“He was our top runner from 55 meters all the way up to … 500 meters,” Kornfield said. “He was also an excellent jumper."

After winning Nassau Class A indoor titles in the 55, the 300 and the long jump, the then-senior ran off with state championships for public school competitors in the 55 and the 300 — the only Long Island athlete to take two state titles that season. He placed third in the Federation in both.

“Very dedicated, very hard worker,” Kornfield said. “Never had a question about any of the workouts that we were giving him. Never complained. Just went out and just made it happen.”

His senior year ended without a chance at any more state titles. Borzor pulled a hamstring late in the outdoor season.

“To go from a pull in his senior year and then to go and do what he did at Cincinnati, we were thrilled,” Kornfield said.

Borzor did some Olympic training this summer on Uniondale’s track.

Prior to Borzor, Willie Smith, Rochelle Thomas and Shevon Stoddart (now Shevon Nieto) competed for the school in track and made the Olympics.

Borzor’s old coach spotted him on Haiti’s boat during the Opening Ceremony — the river parade of athletes down the Seine.

“We got a picture of him from the TV,” Kornfield said. “It came out pretty good.”

So did his former runner. The title of “Olympian” lasts forever.