Dick Fosbury, RIP

[Don Wassall]

The very eventful Summer Olympics in Mexico City during the very eventful year of 1968 are best remembered for John Carlos and Tommie Smith bowing their heads and giving a black power salute during the national anthem after receiving the gold and bronze medals for the 200 meter sprint. The best remembered athletic achievement was Bob Beamon smashing the long jump record with an amazing leap.

But just as sensational and causing a great stir at the Games was Dick Fosbury, who won the high jump gold with his pioneering "Fosbury Flop." After his victory it became the standard method for high jumping and has remained so ever since. Fosbury died the other day aged 76. RIP

 

[white lightning]

The very eventful Summer Olympics in Mexico City during the very eventful year of 1968 are best remembered for John Carlos and Tommie Smith bowing their heads and giving a black power salute during the national anthem after receiving the gold and bronze medals for the 200 meter sprint. The best remembered athletic achievement was Bob Beamon smashing the long jump record with an amazing leap.

But just as sensational and causing a great stir at the Games was Dick Fosbury, who won the high jump gold with his pioneering "Fosbury Flop." After his victory it became the standard method for high jumping and has remained so ever since. Fosbury died the other day aged 76. RIP

A great high jumper and a fine person. This young man chose to think for himself. It's a rare quality these days especially in the younger
genarations from the millienals and beyond. People just do not question anything. If not for Fosbury, we could still very well be seeing
the high jump competition with records way lower than his method of the "Fosbury Flop". It doesn't waste motion which is wasted energy.
It took alot of courage for this man to do things differently and it just shows how even 1 man can make a difference. May he R.I.P.

 

[white is right]

The very eventful Summer Olympics in Mexico City during the very eventful year of 1968 are best remembered for John Carlos and Tommie Smith bowing their heads and giving a black power salute during the national anthem after receiving the gold and bronze medals for the 200 meter sprint. The best remembered athletic achievement was Bob Beamon smashing the long jump record with an amazing leap.

But just as sensational and causing a great stir at the Games was Dick Fosbury, who won the high jump gold with his pioneering "Fosbury Flop." After his victory it became the standard method for high jumping and has remained so ever since. Fosbury died the other day aged 76. RIP

I remember leading up to the 84' Olympics Polaroid or Kodak had an innovators commercial that saluted Fosbury as an innovator similar to their latest camera. He always had reporters come out of the wood work to interview him but he has largely been out of the spotlight since 68'.

Yes the 68' had so many spectacular track and field records his record seemed lost in the shuffle, but the significance of the style wasn't lost the public as within a 2 Olympic cycles all of the medalists were floppers.

Sad news indeed.

 

[sport historian]

I remember the stir about the Fosbury Flop.

 

[mastermulti]

Dick Fosbury changed the world of high jump forever the way Hendrix changed the world of guitar playing (and around the same period too) - I remember watching those 1968 Olympics in black and white as a 15 year old who should have been studying.
It gave me a lifelong love of and interest in track and field which I'll never regret

 

[The Hock]

I wonder why they couldn't come up with a more elegant name for his style than "flop." It guess it works. It stuck.

 

[Flint]

At the height of the beginning of the cultural revolution the best jumper in the world was a white American. Yet “whitemen can’t jump” became the theme of athletics. That shows if you have control of the social media, facts mean nothing.

 

[AC55]

I remember the stir about the Fosbury Flop.

Didn't they consider making it illegal to "flop" over the bar at the time?

 

[sport historian]

Didn't they consider making it illegal to "flop" over the bar at the time?

Eventually almost all competitors in the high jump adopted Fosbury's method.

 

[white is right]

Didn't they consider making it illegal to "flop" over the bar at the time?

It's been close to a million years since I competed in track or tried out for my junior high team(I was a terrible high jumper) but the rule that was adopted since at least the 1920's you can only jump with one leg and the non lead leg has to follow the other leg similar to a dead weight but can move freely.

If you ever watch an instructional video all of the classic styles from Scissors, Western Roll, Straddle and then the Flosbury Flop do this to be legal. Some of the early styles were adopted to a sand pit as the landing area as the flop style could break your neck on the hard sand. When soft cushions were adopted the Scissors and Roll style immediately died and the Straddle style was the dominant style until Flosbury came up with his style. You still see the occasional Straddle style jumper in the multi-event competitors because of their poor technique as points are vital and whatever gets you over the bar counts as that is better than a goose egg.

 

[Jimmy Chitwood]

At the height of the beginning of the cultural revolution the best jumper in the world was a white American. Yet “whitemen can’t jump” became the theme of athletics. That shows if you have control of the social media, facts mean nothing.

excellent point.

much respect to Fosbury, as he had the creativity, courage, and physical ability to overcome the haters and change the world for the better. may more White people live up to his example.

 

[AC55]

It's been close to a million years since I competed in track or tried out for my junior high team(I was a terrible high jumper) but the rule that was adopted since at least the 1920's you can only jump with one leg and the non lead leg has to follow the other leg similar to a dead weight but can move freely.

If you ever watch an instructional video all of the classic styles from Scissors, Western Roll, Straddle and then the Flosbury Flop do this to be legal. Some of the early styles were adopted to a sand pit as the landing area as the flop style could break your neck on the hard sand. When soft cushions were adopted the Scissors and Roll style immediately died and the Straddle style was the dominant style until Flosbury came up with his style. You still see the occasional Straddle style jumper in the multi-event competitors because of their poor technique as points are vital and whatever gets you over the bar counts as that is better than a goose egg.

Thanks for the info.