Dick Fosbury, born Richard Douglas Fosbury, was an American high jumper who lived from 1947 to 2023 and won the gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics with an Olympic record jump of 2.24 metres. He revolutionized the event by developing the back first technique of sprinting diagonally toward the bar and curving backward over it, which became known as the Fosbury Flop after a newspaper caption described him as flopping over the bar. By the 1980 Olympics thirteen of sixteen finalists used his method, and between 1972 and 2000 thirty four of thirty six Olympic high jump medalists employed the Fosbury Flop, making it the dominant technique worldwide.
Facts
Career HighlightWon gold at the 1968 Summer Olympics with the Fosbury flop 1 Classification
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1. Dick Fosbury (Wikipedia)
Lead sentence 1, birth date
Richard Douglas Fosbury (March 6, 1947
Lead sentence 1, death date
March 12, 2023) was an American high jumper
Lead sentence 1, nationality
was an American high jumper, who is considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field.
Lead sentence 2, Olympic gold
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.
lead paragraph, birth-year
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. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backward over it, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight than traditional techniques. Debbie Brill was developing her similar "Brill Bend" around the same time. This approach has seen nearly universal adoption since Fosbury's performance in Mexico. Though he never returned to the Olympics, Fosbury continued to be involved in athletics after retirement and served on the executive board of the World Olympians Association. In 2014, Fosbury challenged Steve Miller for a seat in the Idaho House of Representatives, but was unsuccessful. Fosbury ran for Blaine County Commissioner against incumbent Larry Schoen in 2018, won the seat, and took office in 2019.
Wikipedia, article summary lead
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.
Plays: Athletics, lead paragraph, plays
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.
Competed In: 1968 Summer Olympics, lead paragraph, competed-in
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.
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