(2 of 2)
OuHhinking the Bar. So far this season, Uelses' timing has been flawless. "It was a dream vault," recalls the University of Maryland's vaulting coach, George Butler, who watched Uelses smash Bragg's record in Washington. "The only perfect leap I ever saw. I'm sure he would have made it if the bar was at 16 ft. 4 in.—with a metal pole or any other kind." Rangy (6 ft. 1 in., 172 Ibs.) and well-knit, Uelses runs the 100-yd. dash in 9.7 sec., needs only an abbreviated, 104-ft. approach (standard: 130-140 ft.) to reach top speed. He gets so much lift that he needs only a cut-down, 14-ft. 11-in. pole to propel his body across a 16-ft.-high bar. Aloft he is unusually graceful, clearing the crossbar with his feet tucked closely together, stomach sucked in, arms flung high over his head. Uelses never rests between vaults. He paces back and forth, stares up at the crossbar, tidies up the runway with a broom. "Mental attitude is the main thing," he says. "You can't let the bar beat you; you have to visualize yourself going over. It's a mental fight you have to win."
Son of a German soldier named Feigenbaum who was killed during World War II, Uelses came to the U.S. in 1949, moved in with a great-aunt in Miami and took his aunt's name. In high school he ran hurdles, vaulted and played football, won a track scholarship to the University of Alabama. Unhappy at Alabama ("Bear Bryant had just come, and all they thought about was football"), he quit in his sophomore year and joined the Marines. Assigned to Marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Va., Uelses began training in earnest, determined to break the elusive 16-ft. barrier. He worked each day with weights to strengthen his arm, shoulder and back muscles; each night he drove 50 miles to practice vaulting in the University of Maryland's indoor pit. "I never really had a coach," he says. "I just picked up little technical things by watching other vaulters. I tried everything. What felt good and natural, I kept." By last summer Uelses' dedication began to pay off: he cleared 15 ft. 4¾ in. in the U.S.Russian meet in Moscow. Last week, with 16 ft. safely behind him, John Uelses already had set himself a new goal: 17 ft. "For three years," he said, "I've been building the foundation. Now I'm living in the house."