The American banished the belly-roller technique with his victory at the 1968 Olympic Games.
Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1947, Fosbury became one of the most influential athletes in track and field history by developing the innovative high jump technique that transformed his sport in the 1960s.
Writing on Instagram, Fosbury’s agent Ray Schulte said his client had died on Sunday.
“It is with a very heavy heart I have to release the news that long time friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning after a short bout with a recurrence of lymphoma,” wrote Schulte.
“Dick will be greatly missed by friends and fans from around the world. A true legend, and friend of all.”
“Our sport lost a true legend and innovator with the passing of Dick Fosbury,” said the USA Track and Field (USATF).
“He invented the “Fosbury Flop”, was a gold medallist at the 1968 Games, and remained an advocate for athletes his entire life. Fosbury’s legacy will live on for generations to come.”
USATF chief executive Max Siegel said he was “deeply saddened” by Fosbury’s passing and called him a “true legend and pioneer in the world of track and field”.
He added: “We will always be grateful for his contributions to the sport and his impact on generations of athletes who followed in his footsteps.
“Dick will be deeply missed but his legacy will live on as an inspiration to all.”
Revolutionary technique
Prior to Fosbury’s emergence, almost all high jumpers attempted to clear the bar by using the belly-roll technique, in which they rose face-first while attempting to turn their body mid-jump over the bar.
Instead of attacking head first, the lanky 1.93m tall Fosbury would arch towards the bar on his run before jumping backwards and flopping onto the mat, which is still the standard technique used by elite high jumpers today.
This form is more effective from a biomechanical point of view, as it allows less space between the jumper’s centre of gravity and the bar to be cleared, thus gaining height.
Fosbury began experimenting with new forms of high jumping while still at school, but his new approach first attracted worldwide attention in 1968.
At the 1968 Games in Mexico City, Fosbury won the gold medal after clearing 2.24 metres on his third jump, a new Olympic record, beating teammate Ed Caruthers (2.22), while Soviet athlete Valentin Gavrilov (2.20) took bronze.
A ‘mediocre’ but great jumper
The world record had been held by the Soviet Valeriy Brumel with 2.28 since 1963, using the belly roll technique.
Although Dick Fosbury was never able to clear that height – in fact he tried unsuccessfully on that magical day in Mexico City with three failed attempts over 2.29 – and although there were many sceptics who doubted the effectiveness of the new method, it quickly gained popularity, and in the following years more and more jumpers, men and women, started to use it.
Already at the 1972 Games in Munich, 28 of the 40 competitors used the Fosbury technique, and at Moscow 1980, 13 of the 16 finalists did so as well.
Moreover, only two other jumpers managed to win an Olympic medal using the belly roller since Fosbury’s innovation, who was inducted into the US National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1981.
“The current popularity of my style is a wonderful reward for how much I had to put up with in the beginning with a style that nobody liked,” he said in 1984.
“I used to jump backwards in high school and everyone laughed at me, considering me a crackpot and some people a snob for breaking away from the known rules.
“Until I won in Mexico in 1968 and became a hero.”
With the ‘Fosbury Flop’, Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor soared over 2.45m in 1993 to set the world record and set one of the longest records in athletics history in Salamanca.
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