Dick Fosbury, of the United States, who utterly revamped the technical self-discipline of high jump and gained an Olympic gold medal along with his “Fosbury Flop”, has died after a recurrence with lymphoma. Fosbury died (*76*), March 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP
Athletics legend Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised high leaping along with his signature “Fosbury flop” has died, his agent confirmed on March 13. He was 76.
Fosbury’s agent Ray Schulte stated in a press release that the 1968 Olympics gold medallist had died early (*76*) from lymphoma.
“It is with a very heavy heart I have to release the news that longtime friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning after a short bout with a recurrence of lymphoma,” Schulte stated.
“Dick will be greatly missed by friends and fans from around the world. A true legend, and friend of all!”
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1947, Fosbury was to turn into one of the influential athletes within the historical past of monitor and discipline for growing the revolutionary high-jumping approach which upended his sport within the Sixties.
Prior to Fosbury’s emergence, high jumpers sometimes tried to clear the bar utilizing the “straddle technique” wherein they might take off face ahead whereas making an attempt to twist their physique mid-leap over the bar.
Fosbury nonetheless turned the traditional knowledge on its head along with his new strategy which might turn into immortalised because the “Fosbury Flop” and stays as we speak the usual approach utilized by elite high jumpers.
Instead of tackling the bar head on, the rangy, 6ft 4in Fosbury would arc in direction of the bar on his run-up earlier than taking off backwards and “flopping” over the bar.
“Few athletes in history have done their thing as uniquely as Dick Fosbury,” former U.S. high jump coach John Tansley wrote in 1980.
“He literally turned his event upside down.”
Fosbury first started experimenting with new methods of high leaping whereas nonetheless in class, however his new strategy first gained international consideration in 1968.
Victory at the U.S. faculty championships was adopted by a win at the U.S. Olympic trials in Los Angeles.
At the Mexico City Olympics, Fosbury gained the gold medal after clearing a peak of two.24m along with his third jump — a brand new Olympic and US document — to pip team-mate Ed Caruthers, with the Soviet Union’s Valentin Gavrilov taking bronze.
