1 year ago
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The American Olympic champion Dick Fosbury, who revolutionised the high jump with a technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop, has died. He was 76.
His former agent, Ray Schulte, announced the news on Instagram.
He wrote: “It is with a very heavy heart I have to release the news that longtime friend and client Dick Fosbury passed away peacefully in his sleep early Sunday morning after a short bout with a recurrence of lymphoma.”
Fosbury shot to fame in 1968, when he won men’s high-jump gold in Mexico City after a final that lasted more than four hours. His technique, honed in college competition in Oregon, involved jumping backwards and arching his back over the bar, reversing and ripping up decades of high-jump orthodoxy.
In 2012, he told the Guardian he “had a horrible time dealing with all the attention” that followed his gold-medal win.
“It was too much. I was a small-town kid who did something way beyond what I had ever expected to do. I liked the attention, but I wanted it to be over at a point. It didn’t work that way.”
He also said the gold “changed my life. It brought me gifts, not necessarily monetary. I have met presidents and kings, seen the world and shared my life with wonderful people.”
Fosbury did not compete at the Olympics again but the technique he invented swiftly came to dominate his sport.
On Monday, Schulte wrote: “The track and field legend is survived by his wife, Robin Tomasi, and son, Erich Fosbury, and stepdaughters Stephanie Thomas-Phipps … and Kristin Thompson.”
Schulte said a celebration of Fosbury’s life was being planned, and added: “Dick will be greatly missed by friends and fans from around the world. A true legend, and friend of all!”
English (US)