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The Fosbury Flop: the backwards jump that changed the high jump forever (1968)

Coaches called Dick Fosbury's backwards jump goofy and dangerous. It won Olympic gold.

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The real story

As a teenager in Oregon, Dick Fosbury couldn't master the standard straddle technique, so he kept adjusting the old scissors jump until he was going over the bar back first. A 1964 newspaper caption, 'Fosbury Flops Over Bar', gave the style its name. It only worked because deep foam landing mats were replacing sand and sawdust pits, so landing on your back no longer hurt.

At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics he won gold with an Olympic record of 2.24 m, and the crowd loved it. By the 1972 Games, 28 of the 40 high jumpers used the flop; by 1980, all but three of the 16 finalists did. Fosbury later worked as a civil engineer and died in 2023, aged 76.

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The facts we checked

  • At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, Dick Fosbury won the high jump gold by going over the bar backwards, head first
  • Others jumped facing the bar; his style, the 'Fosbury Flop', was mocked at first
  • By the 1980 Olympics, all but three of the 16 finalists used it

Sources

We checked every number and date on screen before the video was made.

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