Monday Reads

 Obituary:  Athlete Dick Fosbury, 76, famous for his "Fosbury Flop" in the high jump, has died.  He died after a recurrence of lymphoma.

Born in my hometown of Medford, Oregon, in 1947, he graduated from Medford High School in 1965.  His "flop" became the standard for high jumpers.

Snip:

Before Fosbury, high jumpers cleared their heights by running parallel to bar, then leaping over with a scissors kick, often with their faces pointed downward. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, he took off at an angle, leaped backward, bent himself into a “J” shape to catapult his 6-foot-4 frame over the bar, then landed head-first on the mat.

Fosbury cleared 7 feet, 4 1/4 inches in Mexico City to win the gold and set an Olympic record. By the next Olympics, 28 of the 40 jumpers were using Fosbury’s technique. Today, it is by far the most-used technique for elite high jumpers across the globe.

“The world legend is probably used too often,” sprint great Michael Johnson tweeted. “Dick Fosbury was a true LEGEND! He changed an entire event forever with a technique that looked crazy at the time but the result made it the standard.”

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Insanity is on parade in South Carolina.