Richard Douglas Fosbury

Richard Douglas Fosbury was born in Portland, Oregon. Struggling with the traditional straddle and scissors techniques in high school, Fosbury began experimenting with jumping backward over the bar, taking advantage of newly introduced foam rubber landing mats that replaced hard sawdust pits. While coaches initially mocked his style as dangerous and ungainly, he steadily improved at Oregon State University under coach Berny Wagner.

At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Fosbury unveiled his technique on the global stage. Leaping headfirst with his back arched and face toward the sky, he cleared an Olympic record of 2.24 meters (7 feet 4.25 inches) to capture the gold medal before an electrified crowd of 80,000 spectators. Within a decade, the "Fosbury Flop" completely superseded the straddle technique across the globe. Fosbury later worked as a civil engineer in Idaho and served as president of the World Olympians Association.