Top 100 momentsNo. 40
The Fosbury Flop
Dick Fosbury goes over the bar backward in Mexico City and wins gold. High jumpers spend the next decade copying a man the coaches called wrong.
High jumpers straddle, roll, scissors. Dick Fosbury, from Oregon, runs a J and goes over on his back. Coaches hate it. The bar does not. In Mexico City he clears 2.24 meters. Gold. The photograph looks like a man falling into a pool that is not there.
Within a cycle the old styles are antiques. Foam pits make the flop survivable. Every school meet starts to look like Fosbury. Innovation in sport is often a kid who would not listen, then a gold medal that makes listening optional.
Mexico 1968 is remembered for the podium. It should also be remembered for a jump that rewrote a rulebook without changing a rule.