January Johnson

Education

He graduated in 1972 from the University of Alabama, where he holds the school record in the pole vault at 18 feet, 1/2 inch.

Career

Johnson held a world indoor record at 17 feet, 7 inches while competing for the University of Kansas. In 1972, the gymnasium of Rickover Junior High School in Sauk Village, Illinois was dedicated and named in his honor. Chelsea competed for the United States in the women"s pole vault at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin.

January Johnson runs "Sky Jumpers," a pole vault camp in southern California.

Johnson has been an outspoken innovator and advocate for pole vault safety.

Achievements

• He competed for the United States in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany, where he won the bronze medal. He transferred to Alabama, where he became a three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association champion. He won the 1971 United States of America Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Johnson won the 1968 Illinois state high school championship while competing at Bloom High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. His daughter, Chelsea, became a two-time National Collegiate Athletic Association outdoor champion in the pole vault for University of California, Los Angeles, where she is now a member of the coaching staff