Western roll Osborn (1924), Walter Marty (1933), and Cornelius Johnson (1936). Johnson's record, (), was equaled on the same day by Dave Albritton, the first world record holder to use what we now call the straddle technique. At first, the straddle was viewed as just a variation of the Western roll, and indeed video of the 1936 Olympics shows Albritton using a conventional Western roll at lower heights. The straddle did not come to dominate the high jump until the mid-1950s, by which time it was recognized as a separate style. Walt Davis was the last Western roll jumper to hold the
Straddle technique jumper crosses the bar face down, with legs straddling it. With this clearance position, the straddle has a mechanical advantage over the western roll, since it is possible to clear a bar that is higher relative to the jumper's center of mass. In simple terms, the western roll jumper has to raise the width of the body above the bar; the straddle jumper has only to get the thickness of the body above it. There are two variants of the straddle: the parallel straddle and a more diving version. With the parallel straddle, the lead leg is kicked high and