Dick Fosbury, 76, Whose ‘Flop’ Transformed the High Jump, Is Dead

In later years he often said that at the start of his high-jump career, in high school, he was the worst jumper in his school, in the school’s conference and in all of Oregon. He was seemingly not even a gifted athlete, having failed to make his school’s football and basketball teams.

In the high jump, he initially used the old-fashioned scissors style, in which the athlete runs at the bar and hurtles over in a roughly sitting-up position, kicking one leg after the other over the bar.

One day, Fosbury felt inclined to experiment with a new method: trying to clear the bars with his hips. The Flop began coming to him naturally. Coaches were not so sure: They would check the rule books to make sure it was legal, warn him that he could hurt himself doing it or simply assert that it was not a winning strategy.

Fosbury ignored the advice. He improved his personal best by an entire foot in high school alone. He began training harder and discovering a new joy in the sport.

“When you reached the elite level in the high jump, going over the bar at those high levels, you really feel like you’re flying,” he told The Times in 2002. “You’re up there for only a second, but time really does begin to slow down. Time expands. The mind does amazing things. And at that level, it’s truly 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical.”

It was not just Fosbury’s form that made him an unconventional athlete. He wore mismatched running shoes. He had the arm muscles of a chess player. Before making an approach run, he rocked back and forth, clenching and unclenching his fists.

He graduated from Oregon State University in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He moved to Idaho, where he founded an engineering company. His jobs included designing and building bike trails and running paths. He ultimately became a commissioner of Blaine County, Idaho.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/13/sports/olympics/dick-fosbury-dead.html