DICK FOSBURY Biography - Famous Sports men and women

 
 

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DICK FOSBURY

Name: Richard Douglas Fosbury                                                         
Born: 6 March 1947                                                                   
                                                                                     
Richard Douglas ("Dick") Fosbury (born March 6, 1947) is an American athlete who     
revolutionized the high jump using a back-first technique, now known as the           
Fosbury Flop. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve         
and leap backwards over the bar.                                                     
                                                                                     
Dick Fosbury, born in Portland, Oregon, first started experimenting with this         
new technique at age 16, while attending high school in Medford, Oregon. He           
found the variety of techniques used at the time—such as the "Eastern Cut Off",     
the "Straddle" and the "Scissors"—too complicated.                                 
                                                                                     
As a student at Oregon State University, he won the 1968 NCAA title using his         
new technique, as well as the US Olympic trials. At the 1968 Summer Olympics,         
which were held in Mexico City, he took the gold medal and set a new Olympic         
record (2.24 meters / 7 feet 4.25 inches), displaying the potential of the new       
technique.                                                                           
                                                                                     
Despite the initial skeptical reactions from the high jumping community, the new     
technique quickly gained popularity, and it is almost exclusively used by modern     
high jumpers.                                                                         
                                                                                     
Fosbury was an active member of the Theta Chi fraternity at Oregon State             
University.                                                                           
                                                                                     
Dick is now a practicing civil engineer in Ketchum, Idaho.                           
                                                                                     
His high-jump technique was named the Fosbury Flop by an Oregon reporter.