"Who revolutionized the high jump, inventing a unique ""back-first"" technique, named after him?"
Dick Fosbury Dick Fosbury Richard Douglas Fosbury (born March 6, 1947) is an American retired high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential and inspirational athletes in the history of track and field. Besides winning a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, he revolutionized the high jump event, with a unique "back-first" technique, now known as the Fosbury Flop, adopted by almost all high jumpers today. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backwards over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight (it was actually below his body
High jump the bar head and shoulders first, sliding over on his back and landing in a fashion which would likely have broken his neck in the old, sawdust landing pits. After he used this Fosbury flop to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal, the technique began to spread around the world, and soon "floppers" were dominating international high jump competitions. The last straddler to set a world record was Vladimir Yashchenko, who cleared in 1977 and then indoors in 1978. Among renowned high jumpers following Fosbury's lead were Americans Dwight Stones and his rival, tall Franklin Jacobs of Paterson, NJ, who