Ticking clock has Dominic Johnson pressing

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http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/245159

SPORTS
BEIJING OLYMPICS 2008 SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
Opinion by Greg Hansen : Ticking clock has UA grad pressing
Opinion by Greg Hansen
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.24.2008


The St. Lucia Olympic Committee has created four commemorative stamps to celebrate the 2008 Beijing Olympics: two runners, a swimmer and Tucson pole vaulter Dominic Johnson.
At issue is whether Johnson will be in Beijing.
Between now and July 23, the Amphitheater High School and UA grad must clear 18 feet 2 1/2 inches to meet Olympic qualifying standards and thus join his fellow St. Lucians at his third Olympiad.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The ability of Johnson to clear 18-2 1/2 is a big deal. The stamp thing isn't. The St. Lucia Olympic Committee says the stamp's likeness isn't necessarily Johnson, but put it this way: Johnson is the only athlete in St. Lucia history to compete in more than one Olympics, and the only pole vaulter.
So who else could it be?
It's not that Johnson might be forgotten; so far the St. Lucia track and field Olympic team consists of a female javelin thrower and a female high jumper.
As the clock ticks, Johnson, who turns 33 in October, hits the accelerator. He participated in a pole vaulting competition Friday in San Diego (he went out at 17-6) and a day later flew to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. He no-heighted Sunday in Colorado.
"It's getting to be a little stressful,'' he said. "In the next few months I've got to make some sort of a career move.''
Since Johnson cleared 16-1 as an Amphi junior, finishing third in a national high school meet in New York, he has been occupied with the pole vault. It took him to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and to the 2000 Sydney Games. It enabled him to become the only native St. Lucian (he was born in St. Lucia in 1975 and lived there until 1978) ever to win a track and field medal in the Commonwealth Games and seriously contend for a medal at the World Championships.
In between, he has become a husband and father; Kristel and Dominic's daughters are Isabella, 7, and Alexandra, 2 1/2. He has raced with success on the North American bobsled circuit, worked as a landscaper, got his real estate license and made a living buying and renovating Southern Arizona homes.
But his identity has always been as a pole vaulter, and it's something he isn't yet willing to shake.
"This is probably it for me,'' he said. "I'm coaching myself, basically. That's quite a change from the time I was coached by someone like Vitali Petrov, who coached world champions. But I've stuck with it, because I would like my wife and daughters to see me jump at the Olympics.''
And so he goes on, searching for that 18-2 1/2 jump that will lead to the long-sought 19-footer. And who knows where that could lead?
Johnson spent much of the last few weeks working out at the Athletes' Performance Institute in Tempe, trying to regain the strength and physical confidence that made him a world-class pole vaulter during a productive period from 1998 to 2002 when he topped out at 18-8.
His next competition is the first week of July in Cali, Colombia, as part of the Central American Caribbean Games.
If nothing else, Johnson qualifies as someone who could stand in the sand on the French Riviera, or on a ski slope in the Alps, and say "Welcome to the Travel Channel.'' He defines his odyssey seeking the perfect pole vault not as frustration or hard work, but as "an incredible opportunity.''
And on someone else's expense account.
"I was flying into Kansas City a few months ago to work with my old UA coach, Tom Hays, and a woman in the seat next told me it was only the fifth time she had ever flown,'' Johnson remembers. "That made me curious; so I wrote down all the places I had gone to pole vault and it came out at 28 countries. It's pretty remarkable, isn't it?''
Indeed.
Johnson is a prominent figure in St. Lucia. He has been at state affairs with the prime minister. He has met Queen Elizabeth II. Recently, he came to terms with IMI Living, a Caribbean luxury real estate firm that could soon take him back to his birthplace to sell condos on the beach.
"If we do decide to move to St. Lucia, I think my ties to the Olympics would lead to some incredible business opportunities,'' he said. "Our 1996 Olympic track team had three people. Two of them are now working as ministers within the St. Lucia government.''
But first that jump of 18-2 1/2 awaits. If he doesn't make it in Colombia there's another meet in San Diego. And another near San Francisco. And wouldn't it be nice if China became country No. 29 on his pole vaulting odyssey?