Dick Fosbury, Revolutionary Olympic High Jump Gold Medalist, Dies at Age 76

Dick Fosbury, an Olympic high jump gold medalist, died Sunday at the age of 76.

Fosbury was known as one of the most influential competitors in the history of the high jump, as his "Fosbury flop" technique revolutionized the event.

In addition to his innovation, Fosbury was also active in athletics throughout his life. According to World Athletics, he coached at worldwide track camps and became vice president of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Association and president of the World Olympians Association.

Prior to Fosbury's introducing his technique to the world, high jump competitors "would commonly use the straddle or scissor techniques to clear the bar." The Fosbury flop debuted internationally at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, and he won gold with an Olympic record clearance of 2.24 meters.

"In 1968 Mexico, the spectators were so surprised by what I was doing, that they stopped cheering and just looked," Fosbury said in a 2014 Spikes magazine interview. "Even when the marathon runners came in after running 26 miles, there was silence. But my preference [for jumping] was quiet anyway."

After seeing Fosbury's approach, which he at first termed the "back lay-out," high jump competitors couldn't help but to emulate it. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, 28 out of 40 participants in the event utilized the flop, per World Athletics.

"I was the first person to call it that, but it came from a caption on a photo that said 'Fosbury flops over bar,'" he said later. "The context in Oregon was that our town was on a river, very popular for fishing, an hour from the Pacific Ocean. And when you land a fish on the bank, it's flopping. That's the action, and so it's a good description by a journalist, and I remembered it."

Fosbury embarked on a successful engineering career upon his retirement from competition. He also formed the Dick Fosbury Track Camps, where he coached young competitors. He was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1981 and into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1992.