Discover the legends of athletics in our regular feature On the Shoulders of Giants!
Dick Fosbury
No athlete has ever revolutionised their sport to the same extent as US High Jumper Dick Fosbury. The ‘Fosbury Flop’ changed high jumping forever and is now the only technique employed by elite jumpers.
Once in a while a generational athlete will produce such a unique moment of invention, imagination and skill that they own it forever. Think of the ‘Panenka Penalty’ or ‘Cruyff Turn’ in football or the ‘Ali Shuffle’ in boxing. Certain sports are more suited to an athlete bringing their individuality or creativity to their actions. Many of the great gymnasts have moves named after them. If you do a double layout with half turn then you're doing a 'Biles'. In figure skating, to do a ‘Charlotte Spiral’ is to imitate the great German skater Charlotte Oelschlägel who first performed the move in the early 1900s. Or in skateboarding a move that forms the basis of most tricks the ‘Ollie’ is named after Alan “Ollie” Gelfand.
Beyond their sporting arena, athletes too can impact their sport in such a way that it shifts the balance of power, Larry Bird, the legendary Boston Celtics Basketball player has the term ‘Bird Rights’ named after him - relating to free agents in his sport, or the ‘Bosman Ruling’ which altered transfers in football and shifted the balance of power towards players, was due to the fight of Jean-Marc Bosman.
All these athletes have changed their sport indelibly.
In Track and Field, those opportunities to shift the sport or introduce innovative new approaches can appear less frequent, but recently, Olympic and World Shot Put Champion Ryan Crouser was experimenting with a new technique, a step-across method called the ‘Crouser Slide’. And if we travel back to the early 1980s, another US athlete David Volz was introducing his controversial move. The former NCAA Champion Pole Vaulter had adopted a technique that enabled him to steady or push the bar back on to the pegs if it started to fall. The term ‘Volzing’ was ultimately banned by the IAAF in 1983.
These instances are pretty rare but what Dick Fosbury did to his sport is unparalleled.
In 1963, as a 16-year-old High School student, Dick Fosbury first began experimenting with a new high jumping technique. Over the coming years and through trial and error a unique and highly effective approach began to emerge.
At the time the Straddle Technique was the approach employed by elite jumpers. The Straddle and it’s variants like the Western Roll or its precursors like the Scissors all had a straight run up, leg first approach with head down. The lead leg is kicked high and straight, and head and trunk pass the bar at the same time/after.
Dick Fosbury’s ‘Flop’ approach literally flipped high jumping on to its head. The final few steps of the ‘Fosbury Flop’ are run in a curve. This allows the athlete to lean in to the turn and away from the bar. It also lowers the centre of gravity giving a longer time for the take-off. The move from inward lean to outwards on take-off produces a rotation of the jumper's body which assists clearance. All this leads to the head and shoulders crossing the bar first and the trunk and legs following after – i.e. the backward over the bar appearance.
Fosbury, who went on to study civil engineering at Indiana University, wasn’t quite sure how his technique of back first worked, but it felt right, and the results spoke for themselves.
At the 1968 Olympics Dick Fosbury wowed the onlooking crowd at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario in Mexico City. People cheered, oohed, laughed and roared with excitement as the American continued to leap higher and higher. His flop so starkly contrasted the approach of all the other jumpers. Fosbury’s final successful jump of 2.24 metres not only won him Gold but also set a new Olympic record.
Four years later at the Munich Olympics in 1972, the ‘Fosbury Flop’ was already the dominant technique and by Moscow 1980 13 of the 16 Olympic finalist used it.
Dick Fosbury’s impact on the sport and his legacy was clear to all at a very early stage, he was inducted into the US National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1981.
Tadhg Crowley
5 September 2024