“I let Dwight Stones attempt a Fosbury over my head”
– Whiteness Thy Name Is Meltonian
So… what do we know about (Dick) Fosbury?
The A to Z of HMHB
The A to Z of HMHB
“I let Dwight Stones attempt a Fosbury over my head”
– Whiteness Thy Name Is Meltonian
So… what do we know about (Dick) Fosbury?
peter mcornithologist
I remember being totally enthralled by the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.Many world records were set and of course there was the magnificent Salute by Tommy Smith and John Carlos.Another highlight was the revolutionary introduction by Dick Fosbury of the flop,a technique which had not been witnessed previously and which he developed himself.
He actually won the Gold Medal and such was the impact of the flop that by the time the 1972 Olympics took place virtually all athletes utilised the flop .
5 December 2014
dickhead in quicksand
Let’s not forget Peter Norman, either.
Or the superlative piece of ColemanBalls in the 400m hurdles final. “And David Hemery is going to take the gold. David Hemery wins for Britain! Hemery takes the gold, in second place Hennige, and who cares who’s third? It doesn’t matter.” Except, perhaps, to the family and close friends of John Sherwood, who as I recall did some serious damage to his PB.
I wouldn’t have cared to try the Fosbury Flop with a sandpit landing. Being someone totally unathletic, the mouthfuls of sand were bad enough. Stuff the broken neck idea!
5 December 2014
peter mcornithologist
So pleased you mention Peter Norman.An admirable human being.His role in The Black Power Salute was unknown to me until several years ago.but finally the learned what a brave and principled man he was.
6 December 2014
bobby svarc
Tommie Smith 😉
6 December 2014
bobby svarc
I read sometime ago that Tommie Smith and John Carlos were pallbearers at Peter Norman’s funeral in 2006, “They love a black American as long as it’s got a gold medal round it’s neck” Bill Hicks
6 December 2014
peter mcornithologist
@ Bobby. There is an excellent film called Salute,about Peter Normans life.Certainly worth a watch.Footage of the pallbearing within.
6 December 2014
peter mcornithologist
Fosbury recently ran as a Democrat for a seat on the Idaho House of Representatives.He flopped.
6 December 2014
John Anderson
Fosbury once predicted that someone would jump 2m 50 in his lifetime. The current record is 2m 45 achieved over 20 years ago by Javier Sotomayor. Fosbury’s now 67 so it seems extremely unlikely to happen.
I’m not sure if the Cuban Sotomayor had an eight foot stride but it was the world’s only eight foot jump.
6 December 2014
Peter Gandy
@John, I reckon Barshim, if he stays injury free, will do it in the next couple of years: the high point of one of his failures at 2.46m was well over the bar. Bondarenko is definitely capable of breaking the current record too.
@Peter Mc, top contributions about the Mexico Olympics and especially about Peter Norman, but as pedantry is encouraged here, it took quite a lot longer for the flop to become ubiquitous than the next Olympics. Juri Tarmak won in Munich with the straddle technique as did Rosie Ackerman in Montreal. Vladimir Yashchenko’s straddle world record from 1978 (2.35m) wasn’t broken until 1980 and no one else beat it until 1983.
6 December 2014
Peter Gandy
Oh and Dick Fosbury and Debbie Brill – high jump’s Newton and Leibniz.
6 December 2014
Graeme
I was a straddle man myself at school. In the early seventies every other fuc*er was trying to do the flop…and usually failing…while I was traditional but safe. Dick Fosbury – great Olympian but not an immediately successful inspiration to the next generation of high jumpers in Bath, Avon (Somerset at the time but it acknowledges a line in I Hate Nerys Hughes)
7 December 2014
dr desperate
Previous holder of the high jump record on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, beaten in 1975 by Dwight Stones (q v) clearing 7 feet.
19 August 2022
dr desperate
RIP Dick Fosbury.
13 March 2023
dr desperate
A victim of the Curse of Only Connect – word of his demise came up on the BBC’s newsfeed within an hour of his appearance in a picture round on last night’s final (using the same picture).
14 March 2023