Dick Fosbury, the lanky leaper who completely revamped the technical discipline of high jump and won an Olympic gold medal with his “Fosbury flop”, has died aged 76.
Key points:
- Before Fosbury perfected his back-bending technique, jumpers used a scissor kick or head-first method
- He used his “Fosbury flop” to win gold at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics
- US track great Michael Johnson said he was “a true legend” with his “technique that looked crazy at the time” but became the standard
Fosbury died on Sunday after a recurrence of lymphoma, according to his publicist, Ray Schulte.
Before Fosbury, high jumpers cleared their heights by running parallel to the bar, then leaping over with a scissors kick, often with their faces pointed downward.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Fosbury took off at an angle, leapt backward, bent himself into a “J” shape to catapult his 193-centimetre frame over the bar, then landed head-first on the mat.
Fosbury cleared 2.24 metres to win the gold and set an Olympic record.
By the next Olympics, 28 of the 40 jumpers were using Fosbury’s technique and today it is ubiquitous for elite high jumpers across the globe and taught to young leapers everywhere.
“The word legend is probably used too often,” sprint great Michael Johnson tweeted.
“Dick Fosbury was a true LEGEND! He changed an entire event forever with a technique that looked crazy at the time but the result made it the standard.”
Fosbury started tinkering with a new technique as a teenager at Medford High School in Oregon.
Among his discoveries over the years was a need to move his take-off point farther back for higher jumps. Most jumpers planted a foot and took off at the same spot regardless of the height.
Fosbury’s technique took a while to catch on.
The term “Fosbury flop” is credited to the Medford Mail-Tribune, which wrote the headline “Fosbury Flops Over the Bar” after one of his high school meets.
The reporter that day wrote that Fosbury looked like a fish flopping in a boat.
AP