Fosbury, "Dick" (Richard D.)
Track and field
b. March 6, 1947, Portland, OR
After Fosbury won the 1968 Olympic gold medal in the high jump, the U. S. coach, Payton Jordan, commented, "Kids imitate champions. If they try to imitate Fosbury, he'll wipe out an entire generation of high jumpers because they all will have broken necks."
Twelve years later, thirteen of the sixteen finalists in the Olympic high jump were using the "Fosbury flop," and there were no broken necks.
Fosbury began experimenting with the technique, in which the jumper goes over the bar headfirst and backward, when he was sixteen. In the next two years, his best jump improved from 5 feet, 3¾ inches to 6 feet, 6¾ inches.
As a student at Oregon State in 1968, he became the first ever to jump over 7 feet indoors, at the NCAA meet. He also won the NCAA outdoor championship that year and in 1969. Fosbury never won an AAU national championship, but he finished first in the 1968 Olympic trials.
At the Mexico City Olympics, he missed on his first two attempts but made the third at 7 feet, 4¼ inches to set an Olympic and American record.