Dick Fosbury's Flop Trivia Questions

By arching backward, the jumper's center of mass passes slightly below the bar, a biomechanical advantage over older techniques that kept the center of mass above the bar.

Early news reports often referred to it as the 'Fosbury Flip.' The term 'Flop' stuck after a Sports Illustrated writer used it, and Fosbury himself preferred it.

Fosbury retired from competitive jumping after 1968. He did not attempt to qualify for the 1972 Olympics, focusing instead on his engineering career and promoting the flop.

The dominant pre-Fosbury technique was the 'straddle' (or 'belly roll'), where jumpers cleared the bar face-down. The 'Eastern cut-off' was an earlier, less common method.

The flop was never banned. In fact, it quickly became the standard high jump technique worldwide, and Fosbury's gold medal in 1968 only popularized it further.

His coach at Medford High, Berny Wagner, disliked the unorthodox style and told Fosbury to stick with conventional methods. Fosbury persisted, and Wagner eventually relented.

Fosbury cleared 7 ft 4.25 in (2.24 m) in Mexico City, but his personal best was 7 ft 5 in (2.26 m) set earlier in 1968. The win was about technique, not a peak height.

Fosbury independently developed the back-first technique in high school. There is no record of women using it before him; it was entirely his innovation.