The 1968 Mexico City Olympics are usually remembered for a few key evemts: the Black Power salute after the 200m finals, Bob Beamon's shattering of the long jump record, the splitting of the German team into East and West. My personal favorite story is Dick Fosbury.Dick Fosbury was a tall, lanky, high jumper from Portland, OR. He found the traditional forms of high jumping too complicated and not effective for him. So he developed his own technique, dubbed the Fosbury Flop. At first it was seen as a side show act, a novelty that could not compete with established methods. Despite the pressure and criticism, Dick managed to qualify for the 1968 Olympics, where the world saw his new technique.
Dick won the gold in 1968. Soon, all the world's high jumpers adopted his form. Dick would not win an Olympic medal again, but his legacy continues. No competitive high jumper today uses any other method than the flop.
The funny thing is, Dick never set out to change a sport. He was a kid from a small town, who competed outside the traditional hotbeds of track and field athletics, who wanted to find a way to compete and win.
It is amazing what you can do when you don't know it can't be done
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