‘Biggest Loser’ star says she misses Elmont

Elmont native Cara Castronuova, a certified trainer and a two-time Golden Gloves winner who was ranked No. 2 in the country by USA Boxing when she was in her 20s, is one of two new trainers on the hit television show “The Biggest Loser,” which airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC. The network became interested in casting Castronuova on the show after viewing the History Channel documentary “Warrior Women,” which included a segment on female boxers at the Brooklyn-based Gleason’s Gym, where Castronuova trained.

Growing up in Elmont with three younger brothers and a father who was an ex-Marine, Castronuova began boxing with her father in the garage when she was 5, and has been passionate about fighting ever since. She attended the Covert Avenue School and Sewanhaka High School, and wrestled on the high school team as well as at Hofstra University. After graduating from Hofstra with a degree in communications, she became a youth boxing trainer and began competing locally. She won her first fight in 2002 at the Empire State Games in Syracuse, and in 2005 she won her first New York Golden Gloves championship at Madison Square Garden.

Castronuova’s father, who was obese, died when she was just a teenager, and her mother died in a car accident four years ago. “Boxing competitively taught me how important it is to never give up, no matter how hard it gets,” she said.

She said she was chosen to be a trainer on “The Biggest Loser” last August, only a day after she submitted a homemade, low-budget video of her teaching neighbors how to fight in the garage of the Elmont home she grew up in — where one of her brothers still lives and the garage gym remains intact. “I think they liked the message … I was the underdog,” she said of the video. “We have all of these celebrity trainers from Los Angeles and other places, and then here’s this girl who’s training neighbors how to fight in Elmont.”