How the Fosbury Flop changed the high jump at the Olympics

4 months ago 9

One athlete's unconventional style at the 1968 Summer Games made a lasting impact on the sport.

PARIS, France — The high jump, an event part of the track and field, competition, requires athletes to jump and clear a horizontal bar placed at a certain height without dislodging it.

Athletes must start with one foot on the ground when initiating the jump. Other than that, there are no rules about jumping technique, but there is only one that you'll see at the Paris Olympics: The Fosbury Flop.

In the early days of competition, jumpers used a variety of techniques, including the popular straddle jump, where athletes ran at the bar and hoisted their legs over one at a time.

That all changed at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics when the United States' Dick Fosbury introduced a revolutionary new technique not seen at the Games before.

He sprinted diagonally toward the bar before curving away and jumping backwards, clearing the bar headfirst and utilizing the natural arch of the back.

Fosbury cleared 2.24 meters (7 feet, 4 1/4 inches) to win the gold and set an Olympic record, and changed the sport forever.

The Fosbury Flop is now the go-to for most modern high jumpers and the only technique you'll see at the Summer Games. The last Olympics in which a high jumper won a medal using a technique other than the Fosbury Flop were the Montreal Games in 1976.

The term, which Fosbury said he appreciated, is credited to the Medford Mail-Tribune, which wrote the headline “Fosbury Flops Over the Bar” after one of Fosbury's high school meets. The reporter wrote that Fosbury looked like a fish flopping in a boat.

Fosbury died in 2023 at age 76.