(Reuters) – Olympic high jump champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionized the sport with a radically different jumping technique that eventually bore his name, died on Sunday aged 76, his manager Ray Schulte said on Monday.
Fosbury won gold in the high jump at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where he vaulted back first over slats, a technique that has since been called the “Fosbury Flop” and used by all high jumpers today.
“It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that longtime friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep Sunday morning after a brief recurrence of lymphoma,” Schulte wrote on Instagram.
“The track and field legend is survived by his wife Robin Tomasi, son Erich Fosbury and stepdaughters Stephanie Thomas-Phipps… and Kristin Thompson.”
The straddle and scissor jump were common techniques in the high jump. But when the foam mat was introduced to break the athletes’ fall, Fosbury used his new technique for the first time on the world stage.
The American set an Olympic record of 2.24 meters to take the gold and change the sport forever, with more and more athletes trying the backstroke as the technique gradually gained acceptance.
“With his innovative ‘Flop Fosbury’ technique, Dick Fosbury not only won Olympic gold in Mexico City in 1968, he also revolutionized the high jump. He was truly an Olympic pioneer and legend,” Team USA posted on Twitter.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru and Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City, Editing)
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