One of the true legends of Olympic sports has passed.
Gold medalist high jumper Dick Fosbury passed away on Sunday.
He was 76 years old.
Game Changer
There are only a handful of athletes that change their sports.
Dick Fosbury was one of them.
Before the 1968 Olympics, high jumpers ran to the bar and jumped face forward, then twisted their body as it went over the bar.
Fosbury literally revolutionized the sport by running parallel the bar with the final few steps, then leaping and going over bar with the back facing the bar, and the head already turned upward.
This became known as the Fosbury Flop.
By the 1972 Olympics, about half the field was using the new technique.
Today, it is the new “standard,” with the 1976 Olympics being the final games where any athlete used a different technique.
Dick Fosbury, Olympic gold medalist who revolutionized high jump with 'Fosbury Flop,' dead at 76 https://t.co/mqdFG5i2q1
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 14, 2023
Fosbury’s agent, Ray Schulte, stated, Fosbury “passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning after a short bout with a recurrence of lymphoma.
“The Track & Field legend is survived by his wife Robin Tomasi, and son Erich Fosbury, and stepdaughters Stephanie Thomas-Phipps of Hailey, Idaho, and Kristin Thompson.”
In 1968, Fosbury set the new record at 7′ 3″. That record stood for eight years before it was broken.
The record today is 8′ .25,” which is rather astonishing considering how much time has passed, the new training that is available, not to mention the how the class of athlete has changed over the last six decades.
Fosbury was truly way ahead of his time.
Source: Fox News
