How The Fosbury Flop has Revolutionized High Jumping

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The introduction of the fosbury flop in 1968.
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Although he was not the first person to execute the Fosbury flop (Bruce Quande from Montana was photographed using the technique in 1963), Dick Fosbury’s introduction of the style in the Olympic competition in Mexico City 1968 and his ultimate victory in the event, has totally revolutionized the high jump event. Prior to this, most jumpers used the Straddle technique, Western Roll, Eastern cut-off or even Scissors-Jump to clear the bar. photo credit: Ambrosio Photography Given that landing surfaces had previously been sandpits or low piles of matting, high jumpers of earlier years had to land on their feet or at least land carefully to prevent injury. With the advent of deep foam matting high jumpers were able to be more adventurous in their landing styles and hence experiment with styles of jumping. The method used is to sprint diagonally towards the bar, jump off the outside foot, then curve and leap head-first, back-downwards over the bar in a rolling motion keeping as much of the body as possible below the bar. When high jumpers perform this jump, they bend their body in such a way that it is possible for the athlete to clear the bar while his or her center of mass does not. In fact, the body’s center of mass can be kept as much as 20 cm under the pole. By 1980, 13 of the 16 Olympic finalists were using the Fosbury flop. Watching the Beijing Olympics competition yesterday, all the high jumpers use the technique. I cannot recall seeing someone in major competition use any other technique in recent memory. The high jump is my favorite field event as I competed in it at high school using the Fosbury flop, after experimenting with other styles. I jumped much higher than I could with the other styles and it just looked cooler. The high jump event has come a long way from 1968 when Dick Fosbury of the United States jumped 2.24 meters (7 feet 4 and 1/4 inches) and broke the old Olympic record of 2.18 meters (7 feet 1 and 3/4 inches) held by Valery Brum
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