Minneapolis, Minnesota –One day when Jim Moeller was a boy, a large roll of new carpet arrived at his home in Illinois. It came wrapped around a bamboo pole — a pole that was just right for practicing the pole vault. He took up the sport in earnest in junior high, and vaulted to record-setting heights in high school. Then, after a lapse of more than 20 years, he picked up the sport again — at the age of 43. Now he competes in masters’ competitions, coaches in the summer through Fuzion Athletics and helps out unofficially at Eagan High School, where his daughter pole-vaults. WHY NOT? “You usually think of [pole vaulting] as a high school or college sport, although I know one woman who picked it up at age 40. When I left investment banking, I was three pounds shy of 200 pounds. When I started a consulting business in 2002 [Moeller Ventures, an intellectual property research company for tech companies and IP law firms], I was able to start getting back in shape after getting out of the corporate grind. I did some 10Ks and half marathons, but I got kind of bored, so I started looking for something different. Then, coincidentally, I ran into a group of masters who pole-vaulted and I thought, ‘Why not?’ Today, I’m probably 175 pounds, and my ideal vaulting weight is 170, 165.” SETTING THE BAR HIGH “If a school doesn’t have coaches with expertise, the kids struggle. I was pretty good at it right away because we had good coaching. My best ever was 14’9 as a senior in high school. I finished third at state that year, 1981, and I had the highest jump that year of the small schools. I had some attention from colleges, but I didn’t pursue them. College for me wasn’t about pole vaulting; I wanted to get an electrical engineering degree from [the University of] Illinois. more
