The track and field star has died. He changed the history of the discipline

It is difficult to find similar people who went against the current and influenced the form of discipline with one competition. Bob Beamon’s jump or Uwe Hohn’s javelin throw went down in history, changing the way their sport was perceived. Athletics has lost a man who will forever be remembered in the world of high jump.

Former track and field star dies

Richard Douglas “Dick” Fosbury died on March 12 in Salt Lake City at the age of 76. He went down in history as the man who first started high jumping from the flop, i.e. a technique based on jumping with your back to the log and the corresponding bending of the body to shift the center of gravity. Both he and his competitors have been scissor jumping for years.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that my longtime friend Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday following a relapse of lymphoma,” former track and field agent Ray Schulte wrote on social media.

Over the years, Fosbury discovered that it was more profitable to jump on the flop. He qualified for the Olympic Games in Mexico, where he set an Olympic record with a score of 2.24 m. Not everyone wanted to follow in his footsteps, but over time, the flop captured the entire high jump world. The first person to break his record from Mexico was Jacek Wszola in Montreal in 1976 (2.25 m). He later broke the world record in Moscow (2.35 m). The official best result in history was achieved in 1993 by Cuban Javier Sotomayor (2.45 m). Despite his success at the Games, Fosbury never won the US Championship.

Dick Fosbury’s unsportsmanlike career

Fosbury sought to be involved in social and political affairs. In 2014, he unsuccessfully tried to get into the government of Idaho. In recent years, he has struggled with health problems.