Revolutionary Olympian Dick Fosbury has died at age 76

Sometimes something so revolutionary comes along, it’s hard to believe it wasn’t always done a certain way. 

Australia’s Jack Winters, at the 1948 Olympics in London, competed in the high jump, sailing over the bar the way athletes were always trained — going forward. 

But in 1968, U.S. Olympian Dick Fosbury knew there was a better way to go. His technique jumping backward came to be known as the "Fosbury flop." 

That day in Mexico City,  Fosbury cleared seven feet, four and a quarter inches — a record, taking home a gold medal and changing the sport forever.  

"None of us thought we could change our position, change our sport. Change everything around us and make it better. Foz always did," said Steve Preece, former NFL player and one of Fosbury's classmates. 

Fosbury died over the weekend at age 76 from lymphoma. But the "Fosbury flop" lives on, practiced by high jump athletes around the world. The flop — once ridiculed as looking like a fish out of water — also became a symbol of innovation, of never giving up on a good idea. 

"It doesn’t matter if you sing, you dance, you act, express yourself," Fosbury said. 

In 2018, Fosbury was there when his alma mater Oregon State University unveiled a statue of the Fosbury flop. 

"It’s a reflection, for all of us to inspire, to motivate, and for you to create, to innovate. And always be prepared, as they raise the bar," Fosbury said.

Fosbury never returned to the Olympics, but he certainly raised the bar, setting an enduring example of how to ignore the naysayers and turn a flop into a high-flying hit.