The Human Spirit And Neringa Jakstiene

Neringa Jakstiene is in perfect form as she clears the high jump bar to win a gold medal at The Huntsman World Senior Games this week. Photo courtesy Huntsman Games.

 

By Ray Glier

There is a symmetry between Neringa Jakstiene’s work as a housekeeper in Memphis and her “hobby” of Masters track & field. It is a co-existence of two things, which are normally thought of as grinding endeavors.

Yet she doesn't feel the grind of either. Jakstiene is uplifted by both, and that says something powerful to us all about the depth of the human spirit.

Neringa is so dutiful to getting to every speck of dirt one client has employed her for 27 years, another 24 years, and others at least a decade.

And she is just as dutiful to the technique required of her technical events, the 80-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump, and triple jump. It takes keen awareness of how your body is moving and the careful measuring of stride to do these four events. The veteran Masters track & field photographer Rob Jerome, who has taken pictures of Jakstiene in various phases of her jumps, marveled in a Facebook post over the consistency of her technique.

She explains her sense of duty in work and play in simple terms we can all understand. It precisely captures her spirit.

“I love my job and my families I work for,” Neringa said, “and I love my hobby.”

Jakstiene, 60, closed out a remarkable 2024 outdoor season at The Huntsman World Senior Games on Wednesday with seven gold medals, which included tying the world-record mark in the 80m hurdles (12.90 seconds) set by Jane Horder of Great Britain in 2017. Neringa set the American record in the triple jump at Huntsman (10.26 meters).

Before she even got to southern Utah, Jakstiene set world records in the Women’s 60-64 long jump (4.89 meters) and pentathlon (4,921 points) in July at the USATF Masters Outdoor Championships in Sacramento.

Neringa tied Germany’s Frauke Viebahn’s world record in the high jump at 1.48 meters in August at the World Masters Athletics championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. She won six gold medals at the WMA (long jump, high jump, triple jump, 80m hurdles, heptathlon, and 4x100 relay).

The Masters Female Athlete of the Year at 55 years old, Jakstiene is likely to get the award again this year, which also included setting three world records indoors (60 meter hurdles, long jump, pentathlon).

In a phone interview from St. George, Utah, site of The Huntsman Games, after she said tearful goodbyes to officials and volunteers and goodbye to one of the greatest track & field seasons by a Masters competitor, the journey of 2024 washed over her.

“It was just happy moments here this week at Huntsman, it was a great experience, and all year long people have been kind to me and I had such fun,” Neringa said.

“And now it is time for a break for my body. The only running will be on the beach.”

Jakstiene tries to tell you that, at 60 years old, she is the youngest in the competition age group of 60-64 and this is why she had fabulous success.

It’s more than that, of course.

Neringa was a child in the former Soviet Union and you can trace her success this season back to her hardscrabble youth where she grew up poor in a one room flat in Lithuania.

It was her parents and a sister and Neringa. There was a shared sink in the hallway for five families.

Jakstiene’s mother, Ona, could not work because of a brain tumor. Her father, Balys, worked two jobs. It was as meager an existence as you can imagine and it added a layer of resolve that has nothing to do with skill in athletics.

“I'm not afraid of difficulties or hard work,” Neringa said.

Her break came when she was 13 and her family received an apartment because their rundown tenement was being demolished. Jakstiene entered a school with a physical education program and a special coach.

Valentas Sabaliauskas recognized her natural abilities of speed and flexibility and trained Neringa in the hurdles. She became a rising star in the Soviet Olympic machine and was placed on the junior national team and traveled to different countries for track & field meets.

Valentas trained her from 13 to 30 years old. Here is a special part of her story and another explanation for her Masters track success. Geezer Jocks, please read this quote and try and think of a teacher in your life like this.

“He did not try and squeeze everything out of us in practice so that we were crawling out,” Neringa said. “He is just a great coach and gave us a love of sport, which I still have. I love sports.”

At 18, with so many older professionals in front of her on the Soviet team, Jakstiene went to college to study physical education and became a teacher. She still trained with Valentas.

At 30 she and her husband moved to the U.S. and life became hard again. Neringa’s husband, “a very nice man”, she said, had an alcohol issue. He moved to Florida where he died at 50.

Jakstiene had two boys to raise and she raised them how she was raised.

“Do for yourself is how I taught them,” Neringa said.

Nedas, 29, and Lukas, 24, both earned degrees from the University of Tennessee. Nedas has a masters and studied electrical engineering and Lukas a degree in computer science with a minor in cyber security.

Their mom is just as much a high-achiever. Neringa, out of track & field for 20 years, was thrilled when she found out about the National Senior Games in 2016. Jakstiene was so enthused with her first Huntsman Games in 2017, she decided to keep pushing and was soon in USATF national and international events. She has slept in airports to take advantage of the cheapest tickets. She frequently walks to the stadium where she competes to save Uber/Lfyt/taxi fare.

There is more. Her schedule is helter skelter and despite having to be on her feet all day cleaning houses, Jakstiene studies video for technique and squeezes in workouts at local parks or a gym. Valentas, her coach in Lithuania, is now connected by Facebook video and can coach her virtually.

This is how you dominate a sport. You pour yourself into it and give your ability a chance to flourish. It is not for all of us and it should not be a source of envy.

Neringa is simply a product of what the human spirit can achieve.

 

You get the picture. Neringa had a wonderful time in the Utah mountains.

Photo courtesy The Huntsman World Senior Games.

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