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[[images - Billy Olson receives the Tanqueray Award]]

"Because this is an Olympic year, it was our feeling that the award should be made before the games, giving additional impetus to the world-wide competition Heilmann said. "It is in some measure a salute to all of our great American athletes because so many of them are always considered each year as the award is made.

Olson's brilliant upward mobility that began when he set a U.S. record in the Vitalis invitational meet at the New Jersey Meadowlands on Jan. 16, 1982, immediately captivated metropolitan area fans with hopes that he would become the greater vaulter of modern times. He went 18 feet, 6 1/2 inches on that night - and it truly was the forerunner of higher things to come.

Less than two weeks later in Toronto he put up a new world record of 18 feet, 8 3/4 inches. Then in a gradual progression of fractional inchanges, he approved upon that world mark six times in a row.

On Feb. 6 of that year in Louisville, Ky., he went 18 feet, 9 1/4 inches, followed by a boost to 18 feet, 9 1/2 inches at San Diego on Feb. 19. It was up, up and away to 18 feet, 9 1/2 inches at Kansas City on Feb. 27.

Olson put his pole out to cool for awhile, then resumed his ascent with another world indoor mark nearly a year later on Jan. 14 in Ottawa, Ont., at 18 feet, 10 1/4 inches. On to Los Angeles, he got to 18 feet, 10 3/4 inches in that not always rarefied air on Jan. 21, after which he poled the 19 feet, 1/4 inch footstone on that historic Groundhog Day in Toronto.

Sargio Bubka of the Soviet Union subsequently surpassed Olson's indoor mark with a 19 foot, 3/4 inch vault and since then has gone to 19 feet, 3 1/2 inches outdoors for a mark yet to be officially recognized.

Beyond his pole performances, Olson has achieved distinction in other fields as a spokesman for youth groups on contemporary topics relating to their needs. He won the Abilene Christian Trustees Award as the school's outstanding student. He is a leader of a large student group at Abilene's Highland Church of Christ and has appeared on all three television networks, speaking on behalf of young people and their positive contributions to American life.

He was accompanied to New York to accept the award at a luncheon in Gallagher's Restaurant on June 28, by his mother, Mrs. Barbara Olson.

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