A Williams Lake resident, 20-year-old Michael Olson, is a new world record holder.
Olson recently travelled to Orlando, FL. for a worldwide martial arts tournament, the Martial Arts U.S. Open and set the record under the U.S. Martial Arts Breaking Association (USBA) and the World Martial Arts Breaking Association (WBA).
Olson set the record for the most two-inch concrete patio slabs broken with a stomp in 60 seconds by breaking 144 slabs — smashing the previous record of 79 slabs.
Over the past 12 years Olson has trained in various martial arts disciplines; however, his main discipline is ITF (International Taekwon-do Federation) taekwon-do at Williams Lake’s club run by fourth-degree black belt Steve Bengyik. He has also trained kickboxing at Shogun Martial Arts Academy, akido at the Williams Lake Akido Club, as well as Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.
Olson was also part of the local Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps (3064 Rocky Mountain Rangers) for many years.
Olson said he would like to thank everyone who has supported him during his journey, as well as the local RONA and employee Rick Ferreira for offering a discounted rate on the patio slabs he used for training.