A Man, A Town, And A Culture Of 'Sisu'

Rodriguez on the runway at the Florida Senior Games. This was the throw that took him to No. 1 in the world outdoors for 2024. Photo courtesy Florida Senior Games.

Why Zane Rodriguez matters:

Rehab can be simple.
A man’s culture reflects his town’s culture. There’s a book. 
This is your chance to learn something about javelin throwing.
His small region of the country has masters track meets galore. Why?
 
By Ray Glier

When Zane Rodriguez, 65, injured his elbow throwing the javelin in May, 2024 he did what any good athlete does:

Repeat what works.

Zane has had various injuries in 18 years throwing the javelin in Masters track & field—the most serious five years ago when he injured the right elbow doing pullups. He has acquired some reliable drills and exercises for rehabilitation.

Rodriguez went back to the same rehab regimen after the May elbow injury, but this injury, which he thinks was to the ulnar nerve, was stubborn. It didn’t respond the way he hoped. After 3½ months, Zane did something radical in his rehab.

He forgot about the elbow.

Rodriguez had done a platelet-rich plasma injection, a form of regenerative medicine, but when the elbow discomfort still nagged him, the javelin went on the proverbial shelf. Except for a necessary National Senior Games qualifying throw in August and a popular New England local meet in October to test the elbow, he stopped throwing competitively.

“I just ignored the elbow, and got that PRP shot,” Zane said. “So it was basically forgetting about it. I just stopped testing it, stopped trying to force it back into health.”

That’s one lesson for Geezer Jocks, for sure.

By mid-December, after seven months, Zane thought he was ready to challenge that elbow. He flew to the Florida Senior Games for the last outdoor meet of the season.

Was it worth it going 1,400 miles from his home in Norwich, Vermont to Brandon, Fla., for three throws permitted in these state games, not the usual six for national meets?

It was.

Zane’s first throw that Saturday at Brandon High School was magic.

The javelin flew 51.89 meters and he passed Ukraine’s Serhii Havras (48.70) to claim the No. 1 world ranking outdoors for 2024 (M65-69).

Javelin throwers like to say they “throw blind” because they don’t see the javelin fly until the tail flashes the moment before it sticks to the ground. But the javelin thrower knows if they got off a good throw from their “penultimate step”

If you don’t know the javelin throw read this:

“When I'm coming down the runway with speed, there's a moment where your last step is called the penultimate step, and if you can get into the right body position, you know it's going to be a good throw before the javelin leaves your hand,” Zane said.

“You get behind the throw, so that you know your hips are ahead of the throw. And once that happens, you can just feel the torque in your shoulder and the lats. You're just steering the javelin with your arm. It's more of a body throw than an arm throw.”

That’s the magic.

“I was very happy to just have that feeling back again,” Rodriquez said.

It is the golfer’s sweet swing, the sprinters stride, the pitcher’s rhythm, the basketball player’s shooting touch.

Zane wasn’t the only one reveling in the heave. The javelin throwers in the Men’s 65-69 cohort have developed a kinship on What’s App, which was set up by fellow javelin thrower Len Garza.

Here is the video of Rodriguez’ No. 1 world throw in Florida.

Havras, the Ukrainian pictured at the end of this story, met Zane in Finland at the World Masters in 2022 when Rodriguez managed a bronze medal in the 60-64 age group. Zane admires Serhii’s patriotism in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine in 2022 and Putin’s slaughter of civilians.

The javelin rivals use Google Translate to communicate and Zane is planning for a robust competition in March at the world indoor championships in Gainesville, Fla.

**
What makes Rodriguez’ story more compelling is that he lives in Norwich, Vermont, which is the most impressive sports town in the U.S. you have never heard of. It is not just the U.S. Olympians the town has produced for every Winter Olympics but one, it is the collective culture around sports in Norwich (pop: 3,000).

In her book Norwich, author Karen Crouse describes a place absent the hectoring of parents trying to push their children toward Olympic stardom. It is the children that nudge themselves along in athletics, if that’s what they want to do.

Rodriguez, a geologist turned builder, describes the town’s sports culture as a certain “resilience.” It is similar, he said, to what the athletes in Finland call “sisu”, or inner strength, determination, and perseverance.

Rodriguez and his wife, Tracy, raised three children smack in the middle of the Norwich-way. It is not accurate to label it a “laid back” approach by parents because there can be intense training and exacting coaches in a place where winter never seems to stop.

But the stew of athletics and ambition does not boil over. Zane says he has never encountered “pushy” parents. Sports psychologists marvel over Norwich and want to spread the town’s sports ethos around the U.S. It is so ingrained that Olympians from the area come back to settle and donate their time with lessons.

It is not just the kids who benefit. Older athletes, like Zane, take advantage of the culture and contribute to it. Rodriguez has been a volunteer coach at Hanover High School (across the river in New Hampshire) for 15 years.

Zane gets coaching from Carl Wallin, one of the most respected intercollegiate track & field coaches in the country. Wallin spent 39 years at Dartmouth College and coached 29 All-Americans. Carl offers free coaching in a club he founded, Thor Stone AC in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

The local manners around athletics are why Zane doesn’t have to travel far for competitions and doesn’t want to. In addition to three children, one with a disability, Rodriguez has five grandchildren.

“We’re needed around here a lot,” he said of himself and Tracy. He and Tracy, a superb college athlete herself, train together, and especially bear down on Yoga.

The culture in Norwich and the surrounding area is why there are a slew of track meets in the region during the outdoor season. Zane said a friend in Philadelphia bemoaned the lack of events in large metropolitan area. With Norwich, Rodriguez can stay close to home because facilities are open and the meets are well-run with ample volunteers.

Some times, though, Zane is willing to fly to let the javelin fly. He was No. 1 in the world in 2023, then came the injury, the rehab and time off, and Rodriguez had to see where he was one last time in 2024.

“Once you see what it feels like to be number one for a little bit, then you go after it again,” Zane said. “It's worth chasing.”

And sometimes the chase can be taking the simplest path.

From the left: Zane, Ukraine's 95-year old racewalker Ivan Pushkin, and Havras, the javelin thrower. That's Len Garza behind them with wide smile in gray. The picture is from the World Masters in Finland in 2022.