NEW YORK – The legendary American high jumper Dick Fosbury died shortly after his 76th birthday. The pioneer of the flop jumping style succumbed to cancer of the lymph nodes, with which he had been fighting for 15 years. The athlete’s agent, Ray Schulte, reported on his Sunday death on Instagram today.
Fosbury experienced the most famous moment of his sports career on October 20, 1968 in the final of the high jump competition at the Olympic Games in Mexico.
With his revolutionary style of jumping with his back forward and landing on his shoulders, he overcame the bar at a height of 224 centimeters and won the gold medal in a new Olympic record.
RIP to the man who changed the high jump forever – Dick Fosbury.
He became a legend at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games when he unveiled his revolutionary “Fosbury Flop” to win high jump gold and clear an Olympic record height.
News pic.twitter.com/1HmQdQ0k5b
— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) March 13, 2023
Until then, high jumpers jumped with the help of a quick cut forward with their legs or hips. At the age of 15, Fosbury surpassed 162 centimeters. But then he found out that it probably wouldn’t go any higher, so he tried to change the style. At that time, the most used jump technique called the middle jump did not suit him very well, moreover, it seemed unnecessarily complicated to him.
At midpoint, the high lifter was belly over the bar, and Fosbury realized that it would be much more efficient to have a lower center of gravity and cross the bar on his back. He also invented a new type of run with eight steps curved in the shape of the letter J. Using a revolutionary technique, he improved to 178 centimeters in just one year, and in 18 years he already won the US junior championship with a performance of 200 centimeters.
For the first 72 years at the Olympic Games, athletes jumped forwards in the high jump
Then, at Mexico 1968, Dick Fosbury came along with his “Fosbury flop” and changed the sport forever pic.twitter.com/AZOwrV6scA
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 13, 2023
An Oregon journalist took care of naming the new style, calling it “Fosbury’s flop”. At first, trainers considered this style dangerous, claiming that it was at risk of rupturing the ligament.
Fosbury’s triumph in Mexico did not immediately grant the flop a privileged status. For a few more years, it was taken as an alternative to the center, with which the elite high-flyers were still able to win. Over time, however, the flop gained dominance and at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 it was already used by the vast majority of competitors.
“When you flop, you make much less movement in front of the bar and you get through it flat, which reduces the risk of getting in the way with some part of your body,” commented on his Fosbury style.
- Author: © List
- Twitter/CITIUS MAG, AW
- Source: CTK
