Dick Fosbury

Dick Fosbury (1968)

Dick Fosbury , actually Richard Douglas Fosbury; (Born March 6, 1947 in Portland , Oregon ) is a retired American athlete . He revolutionized the high jump through the jumping technique he created, the Fosbury flop , in which the jumper crosses the bar backwards.

With his new technique he first won the American Olympic elimination and on October 20, 1968 the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City with a jumped height of 2.24 meters. Although his technique was initially viewed with skepticism, it caught on in a relatively short time and is now a modified form of the standard high jump technique.

As a student at Oregon State University , he was NCAA outdoor champion in 1968 and 1969 and indoor in 1968. After the 1969 season he ended his competitive sports career.

Fosbury is currently the Guest of Honor invited to athletics events; He lives in Ketchum in the US state Idaho and worked there as a geodesist in road construction .

Web links

• Circus or broken neck: Fosbury turns 60 , article in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger , March 2, 2007
• High jump: The gold flop creator turns 60 , article in Focus , March 4, 2007
• Dick Fosbury turns 60: The flop that became a hit , article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 6, 2007
• Dick Fosbury turns 65: “The laziest jumper in the world” , article by Michael Reinsch in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 6, 2012
• Fosbury Revolutionizes the High Jump in Mexico City in 1968 , Mini-Documentation on YouTube , April 1, 2018 (in English)
• "Turning points in sports history": When Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump - and the world was suddenly on its back , article in the NZZ , April 14, 2020