February 2024 ~
There's rarely much good to be found in the closing of one’s former high school. But for Gwen Olson Rhodes (Jackson, 1982) there was at least a sliver of a silver lining in the shuttering of her alma mater some 40 years ago.
Rhodes left Jackson holding the school’s fastest-ever times in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. As a member of the school’s last class of graduates, those immediately became records that, of course, will stand for eternity.
Had she known about one of them at the time, she would have had twice the reason to be pleased over the last several decades, or right up until when in 2014 she learned her feats had helped earn her a nomination for the PIL Hall of Fame.
“I knew about the 100-meter record but had no idea my best 300-meter time was a record,” Rhodes says. “I didn’t learn that until I ran into my track coach (Jerry Lyon) and he told he that was going to nominate me for the Hall of Fame. To be inducted was an honor for sure. Then to go to the event and see that you are part of such an amazing group of people was awesome.”
For the record on Rhodes’ records, that chance meeting with her former coach was also when she first learned that, as a senior, she also had set a then-PIL record in the 300-meter hurdles. Good thing pleasant surprises don’t have expirations dates.
Growing up the younger sister of three sports-minded brothers, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Rhodes had an athletic future ahead of her. Not that she minded.
“My brothers and I were all within six years of each other, and I did everything they did,” she says.
Early on, when the family lived in northwest Portland, “everything” included a lot of skateboarding and, after her father discovered a new passion for himself, a lot more skiing.
“When I was 8 or 9, Dad became obsessed with skiing, so all of us learned how to ski together,” Rhodes remembers. “We would go up to Mt. Hood sometimes twice a week. Sometimes he’d pick us up from school and we’d go night skiing. We didn’t get birthday or Christmas gifts, we got ski gear, and we were OK with that.”
Rhodes was all in on the sport – until she wasn’t.
“My brothers had done gymnastics and would do tricks on skateboards, so they all gravitated toward freestyle skiing,” she says. “I was a little too tall for that and a little too chicken. It involved high jumping and I fell badly once and decided, I’m over this. Then I went to a summer camp where I skied every day for 60 days and it became so much work it just wasn’t fun anymore.”
At age 10, Rhodes moved with her family to southwest Portland and picked up where she’d left off on the other side of the river, playing middle school softball and basketball, competing in track and getting her introduction to the concept of running fast and jumping over obstacles.
“I’m not really sure why I started doing hurdles,” she says. “I was on the taller side and I was fast, but not quite fast enough for sprints. That’s how you usually wind up a hurdler.”
Rhodes also was inspired to pursue the event by a friend who would wind up running hurdles for the West Point Academy track and field team.
“He encouraged me and showed me how to do work on the three steps between hurdles, and when I got to high school, I was finally able to do it. It’s a challenge.”
In her bio on the Hall of Fame CyberMuseum website, Rhodes goes deeper into her experience with the event.
“Running the hurdles took consistent dedication and guts,” she wrote. “Running came naturally to me but hurdling took an aggressiveness that was not part of my personality. I worked hard, thanks to my coaches’ encouragement, to make such a challenging event successful. I was pushed and I pushed myself to do something that was not easy for me.”
Her hurdling experience, Rhodes adds, also helped her discover a new level of confidence that “I still reflect on today.”
At Jackson, Rhodes also played two years of junior varsity basketball and competed in soccer, earning three letters and 2nd Team All-PIL as a junior. Her favorite memories, however, came from her experiences on the track team.
“I liked being on the track team because you really come together with girls and boys and all events,” she says. “You meet different people of all ages, from pole vaulters to shot putters. You all get put on the same bus to travel to meets. It was just a great experience.”
Rhodes qualified for state annually after her freshman year and, as a senior, her two hurdles titles helped the Jackson team win the PIL championship.
Competing with the track team also afforded Rhodes an opportunity her other sports could not, she says.
“While I was in high school, my parents divorced. So, by the time I was a sophomore, I had to help my single mom pay rent,” she says. “Track was the one sport I could compete in while still working.”
After graduating from Jackson, Rhodes attended Clackamas Community College, where she gave up hurdling even though coaches had approached her about joining the track team.
“Looking back, I regret not having done it,” she says. “But I had three jobs at the time, trying to pay for school and living expenses. Between working and going to school, I just didn’t have enough time.”
When she was 21, Rhodes met a fellow named Tony who, she would learn, was also a hurdler in high school and college. Clearly that wasn’t the only thing they had in common as they’ve now been married 37 years and are the parents of a 35-year-old-daughter and 31-year-old twin son and daughter. The couple also have five grandchildren.
And yes, to answer your question, both twins, Dakota and Kallea, competed in hurdles, while Nikola was a high jumper.
The Rhodes now live in Sunriver, where Gwen works in accounting for a construction company. She stays active enough to be considering a return to competing in Masters track events, something the couple started doing together in 2012 and have enjoyed past success in.
In 2014, she won the 400-meter sprint in the Oregon master women’s 50-55 age group, running a meet-record time that was also 12th-fastest in the nation.
She also played in women’s soccer leagues for 18 years.
Rhodes had to take a break from her athletic endeavors when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to undergo surgery and radiation treatment. “That was nine or 10 years ago, and so far, so good,” she says.
To aid in her recovery, she and Tony took up CrossFit training, which they still do four to five times a week, she says.
The Rhodes stopped competing in Masters competitions when Covid hit, but they’re toying with the idea of jumping back into it. Besides her talent and experience on the track, she says she has another thing going for her in the Masters competitive arena.
“Before, when I was competing in the 50-to-54 age group, I was usually finishing in the top five. When you pick an event that not a lot of 50-year-old women are competing in, you can set a lot of records,” she says with a laugh.
Do you know Gwen Olson Rhodes? If you’d like to reconnect, she can be reached at [email protected]
Photo Note: Click on a photo to see its caption.
~ Profile written by Dick Baltus (Wilson, 1973)
CyberMuseum bio:
