Gus Rodriguez, who grew up in Rye and learned his sport at RowAmerica Rye before becoming an All-American at Brown University, was at this summer’s Paris Olympics as the spare rower for the U.S. men’s team.
While he didn’t row in medal competition for the eight-oared USA shell that won a bronze medal or the four-rower boat that took gold, he wound up partnering with a German rower to take third place in an early race just for team spares.
“While I had to be prepared to row if any of my American teammates couldn’t compete, I did get on the water with a pick-up rower from the German team, Jasper Angl,” Rodriguez said recently. “While all the rest of the rowing is nation against nation, I found out just before the opening ceremony that other teams’ spare rowers were picking up partners from other countries for the non-medal pairs race.
“We had just 250 meters of practice before the actual contest at the new Vaires-sur-Marne rowing venue outside Paris,” he added. “So finishing third was pretty good – we were punching above our weight.”
The 2024 Summer Olympics were a sort of regatta reunion for Gus and his parents, Raoul and Meg Rodriguez, both rowers themselves. His father was in the American eight that won silver at the 1988 Olympic Games, while his mother, a real estate agent for Berkshire Hathaway in Rye, was the first female captain of Philadelphia’s venerable Vesper Boat Club.
On a more personal note, his father proposed to his mother 31 years ago while they were in Paris, in the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
“Pretty romantic, huh?” she said. “Returning here was magical.”
Their son credits RowAmerica Rye and especially his coach, Aleks Radovic, for instilling in him the techniques and discipline that make him a world-class rower today.
Contributed photo
“He was like an older brother to me all through high school,” he said of Radovic. “Of course, my Dad’s always been helpful – so was my coach at Brown, Paul Cook.”
Rodriguez was selected to race at the 2021 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Racice, Czech Republic; he also competed in the 2022 U-23 world championships in the men’s four. After rowing in the stroke seat for Brown’s crew and being named U.S. Rowing’s 2021 Under 23 Athlete of the Year, Gus took a graduate year at the University of California, Berkeley, where his team won the 2023 intercollegiate national championship.
“I love rowing, showing up every day, getting the work done,” he said. “I spent this spring shuttling between Princeton, where the U.S. Development Team was training for the Henley Regatta, and Philadelphia, where the Olympic Trials were held.”
“I loved every second of my experience,” Rodriguez added. “Having my family in Paris. And I am more motivated than ever to get back to work for LA ’28!”