Dick Fosbury, who used the Fosbury Flop, a novel back-first high jump technique, to win the 1968 Olympic high jump title, passed away on Sunday morning at 76.
How did Dick Fosbury die?
According to Schulte Sports Marketing and Public Relations, who acted as his agent, Fosbury passed away peacefully after a brief bout with a recurrence of lymphoma. 2008 saw Fosbury receive his initial cancer diagnosis. As a high school sophomore in Medford, Oregon, Fosbury developed his “flop” high jump technique. By graduation, he had perfected it.
In an interview for the NBC Sports documentary “1968” about the Mexico City Olympics, he claimed that he had modified the traditional “scissors” style, in which a jumper would hurdle over the bar and kick their legs out in front of them. To improve its effectiveness, I modernised and changed that style. “. He claimed that he used it for the first time shortly after turning 16 in April 1963.
Journey of Dick Fosbury:
“Until then, my trainer had been attempting to instruct me in the straddle technique. My performance was appalling. According to Fosbury, I was the worst high jumper in the entire district. “Only by switching from sitting over the bar to a back layout did I advance a half-foot that day. “. In the middle of the 1960s, Fosbury calculated that 95 per cent of high jumpers employed the western roll or straddle technique, in which an athlete would throw an arm and a leg over the bar and land on their belly. Olympic silver medalist Ed Caruthers from 1968 recalled in 2017: “When we first saw him, we were saying, ‘Oh man, what a nutcase here with this guy. I’ve observed a few unconventional jumping techniques in the past, but none of them worked. “.
The term “Fosbury Flop” was coined by the Medford Mail Tribune newspaper, which ran the caption, “Fosbury flops over the bar,” according to “The Wizard of Foz,” a 2018 book that Fosbury co-wrote. According to Fosbury, he was the only one performing the flop at the 1968 Olympics. He cleared 2.24 meters for gold with it, shattering the Olympic record.
According to Fosbury, the audience was utterly silent and concentrated on my attempts each time I jumped when we were competing for a medal. “I had the best day of my life that day. The public embraced the failure. It irked the coaches. Particularly those who had adopted the straddle and made a concerted effort to teach and coach their athletes how to use it. Because of this, they didn’t like when a man came in and beat them with something unique. “. Since then, and the method has evolved into the event’s norm. Fosbury claimed, “I made the world aware of an alternative process of clearing the bar. In 2018, Fosbury’s alma mater, Oregon State, unveiled a statue of him performing his flop.
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