Working with kids a far cry from the Olympic stage
Former Olympic and Commonwealth Games middle distance runner Dianne Rodger is still involved in athletics, Evan Pegden reports. Encouraging exercise and healthy eating among primary school children might seem a world away from running in an Olympic 3000 metre final 30 years earlier.
But Dianne Rodger will never forget being part of one of women’s athletics’ most controversial races.
These days Hamilton’s Rodger, 57, is employed by Sport Waikato as an ‘‘energizer’’ for Project Energize, working with schools on building healthy habits while keeping fit herself with a mixture of mountain biking, walking and jogging and staying involved in athletics through administration.
But back in 1984 she ran in the final of the women’s 3000m at the Los Angeles Olympics where infamously barefoot South African Zola Budd, running for Great Britain, and American Mary Decker clashed at the head of the field, Decker tripping and ending up sprawled on the infield, accusing Budd of forcing her off the track.
Rodger, who represented New Zealand at both the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games as well as the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and world cross country championships, said she will never forget the Los Angeles experience.
‘‘I went in knowing I’d qualified ninth [from the heats] but you kind of get a second chance in a final to really get in there and go for it,’’ Rodger said.
‘‘You have your race plan all sorted and things seemed to be going pretty good till part way through and then it all came unhinged and I ended up ninth.
‘‘I guess that was where I was seeded and that’s where I ended up but it could have gone a different way.’’
She doesn’t think she necessarily would have won a medal but could have finished further up the field ‘‘but it was such a messy race’’.
Rodger was involved in an incident before the Budd-Decker one when her and another American runner came together.
‘‘She fell to the track and I managed to hurdle over her and ended up way out in about lane six or seven by that stage and by the time I recovered and we seem to have just managed to get back onto
Dianne Rodger working with Vardon School pupils, from left, Alex Sok, Mac Winter, Izarius Figure, Jericho Chase and Oishin Cummins. everyone and get going again and next thing that happened in front.
‘‘It was hard to see – all I remembered was running past Mary Decker lying on the inside of the track and the noise [from the crowd] was absolutely deafening,’’ she said.
Earlier, at the age of 19, Rodger had gone to the Montreal Olympics in 1976 where she ran in the 1500m but didn’t get past the heats – an experience that made her determined to make a final next time.
She had to wait a while for that next time as injuries plagued her career until she emerged to claim fourth placings at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in both the 1500m and 3000m and then go on to the 1984 Games where she and husband, rower Dave Rodger, became the first New Zealand married couple to compete together at an Olympics.
Born Dianne Zorn in Napier, she had excelled in running at intermediate school and then at Colenso High School, going to her first national cross country championships at the age of 13 and on leaving school was in her first New Zealand cross country team.
She emerged at a time when running was not the done thing for women in New Zealand and 1500m was deemed the furthest women could run.
Emerging at the same time was another trio of young Kiwi women – Lorraine Moller, Anne Audain and Alison Deed (later became Alison Roe) – and between them they went on to dominate the New Zealand scene and eventually the US road racing circuit.
‘‘It was pretty rare back then to see even the few of us who did run actually run around and train on the roads.
‘‘You were looked at because it was pretty weird to see females out running back then, which seems quite archaic now,’’ Rodger said.
Her father was often questioned by people as to whether he was happy having his daughter out running on the roads.
Rodger, who got married and moved to foggy Hamilton 35 years ago, had to overcome a plague of injuries that interrupted her running career after Montreal.
It was not until the Brisbane Commonwealth Games that she was back firing on all cylinders and able to compete at another games. But her fellow Kiwis kept her out of the medals, finishing fourth in both the 1500m where she was just pipped for bronze by Moller and 3000m behind gold medal winner Audain and bronze medallist Moller.
The same year Rodger finished fifth at the world cross country championships and she moved on to the American road racing circuit where Audain and Roe had paved the way by controversially running for prizemoney.
After the LA Olympics she continued to race on the road, had one last crack at making the NZ team for the world cross country championships, which were run in Auckland, and missed out.
She had a go at a marathon at Long Beach, California, and then decided to give the longer distance a real crack, lived in the US for three months in the build-up to the 1988 New York Marathon but suffered a stress fracture the week before the race when she tripped over something on the pavement while training.
‘‘That kind of finished off my ankle and lower leg so that was it for me and I never really came back after that even though I tried.’’
Instead her and husband Dave started a family. The eldest is daughter Aynslee, 25, who lives in Sydney and plays Aussie Rules and American Football, representing New South Wales.
Son Logan, 22, lives in Hamilton and is a rower, having represented New Zealand at world junior and universities championships, while the youngest, Brenton, 17, is still at Hamilton Boys’ High and plays football.
Rodger has continued to be involved in athletics, running events, has been on the board of Athletics New Zealand, the management committee of Hamilton Hawks and run a kids athletics club for 10 years.
‘‘I’ve never really given it up. It’s always been there,’’ she said.