FAIRBANKS -- Sporting a "Native Rock Star" T-shirt and riding the hopes of a Point Hope fan club, Jesse Frankson went platinum on the biggest stage at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics.

Frankson, 24, rocked Big Dipper Arena here Saturday night when he broke the world record in WEIO's most celebrated event, the one-foot high kick. Frankson kicked 9 feet, 8 inches to best the previous record of 9-6 that he shared with Brian Randazzo of Anchorage and John Miller III of Barrow.

He was poised to do something special in the acrobatic one-foot high kick, an event in which competitors kick a sealskin ball the size of an orange, suspended overhead, with one foot and land on the same foot without losing their balance. ...