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The Fosbury flop is a jumping style used in the track and field sport of high jump. It was popularized and perfected by American athlete Dick Fosbury , whose gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City brought it to the world's attention. [ 1 ]
Richard Douglas Fosbury (March 6, 1947 – March 12, 2023) was an American high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field. He won a gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics, revolutionizing the high jump event with a "back-first" technique now known as the Fosbury flop.
Under the metric system, a new record must be (at least) one centimeter higher. In 1973, American Dwight Stones was the first Fosbury Flop jumper to set a world record. The namesake of the technique, Dick Fosbury impressed the world by winning the 1968 Olympics with the flop, but never held the world record
Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Fosbury’s dramatic upturn in performance after adapting his technique propelled the American to shock Olympic gold and rewrote the manual on high jump – despite deep scepticism of his methods
Fosbury won Olympic gold in 1968.
Dick Fosbury won by using a backward jumping style that was called the Fosbury Flop. [2] This was the unveiling of the new style on the world stage. The style completely revolutionized the sport. By the mid 1970s and ever since, virtually all of the top competitors were using the new style.
For a Fosbury Flop, depending on the athlete's jump foot, they start on the right or left of the high jump mat, placing their jump foot farthest away from the mat. They take an eight- to ten-step approach, with the first three to five steps being in a straight line and the last five being on a curve.