FLOP IDOL; HIGH JUMP STAR LEAPS ACROSS ATLANTIC: Olympic icon Dick Fosbury to teach young Scots the jump that shook the world.Byline: LESLEY ROBERTS THE world laughed when lanky teenager Dick Fosbury Noun 1. Dick Fosbury - United States athlete who revolutionized the high jump by introducing the Fosbury flop in the 1968 Olympics (born in 1947) Fosbury, Richard D. Fosbury first flopped over the high-jump bar at the 1968 Olympics. More than 40 years on, the strange arched-back head-first leap he revealed at the Mexican games has changed his sport forever. Now the creator of the Fosbury Flop Noun 1. Fosbury flop - jumping over the bar backwards and head first high jump - the act of jumping as high as possible over a horizontal bar is coming to Scotland to coach our young sports stars in how to bag a gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize of their own. Dick, 61, who owns an engineering firm in the US, has agreed to the trip despite not being at full fitness after a battle with cancer of the spine last year. He will arrive in Glasgow next month to advise the high-jump squad from the Bank of Scotland's Talented Young Athletes programme. Speaking from his home in Idaho, the high-jump legend said: "These kids are a couple of generations on from when I first started using the Fosbury Flop but they will all have learned the technique. "I never thought for a moment back in 1968 that what I was doing would catch on in such a big way. "I had been developing the flop for five years before and all I knew was it kept me competitive. At the time, the prevailing technique was called the straddle In the stock and commodity markets, a strategy in options contracts consisting of an equal number of put options and call options on the same underlying share, index, or commodity future. and I just couldn't learn it. "It was too difficult and complicated for me and I thought maybe a few other jumpers might find the flop worked for them too. I had no idea it would actively revolutionise the sport." Dick bagged the gold in Mexico with a new world record - 7ft 4.25 inches - and his revolutionary diagonal run-up and backwards leap caught on like wildfire. At the next Olympics in Munich four years later, 28 of the 40 high jumpers had started using the Flop. Dick still gets a kick from the fact his jump is now the recognised gold standard in high jump. He said: "It is really something special to know I have made a contribution to the sport that I love. It's like I've got my own brand and it really has influenced my life. I even love the name. "I enjoyed the conflict of putting the word 'flop' in there. It was ironic." In Scotland Dick will meet the young athletes who are already dreaming of competing in the 2012 London Olympics There have been two London Olympics (London hosting the Olympic Games), in 1908 and 1948, with a third scheduled for 2012. The planned 2012 Olympics will make London the first city to have hosted the modern Games of three Olympiads. and the Commonwealth Games Commonwealth games, series of amateur athletic meets held among citizens of countries in the Commonwealth of Nations. Originated (1930) as the British Empire games, the series is held every four years and is patterned after the Olympic games; women have participated in Glasgow two years later. He understands their passion because Dick was just 16 when he started honing the technique that would win him a place in sporting history. What drove him was the desire to be as good as he could be - and the Fosbury Flop was his best hope of achieving that The 6ft 4in star said: "What I love to do more than anything now is talk to young athletes about the experiences of competition and the rigours of training. "I want to encourage them to try all sorts of sports and lots of events because there is so much evidence that cross-training really helps young athletes develop. "What I don't think I have to do is encourage them to look for their own techniques. They will do that by themselves, l.roberts@sundaymail.co.uk just by their desire to win and to be the best they can be. "You don't have to tell an athlete to strive to find the best way of outdoing their opponents - they already want to do that naturally. "Passion and drive is what it takes. I watch young kids playing basketball and they emulate their heroes. "But they also use new movements that people haven't seen before, purely because they are motivated to keep the ball away from the other team and get it into the basket. "When you are very competitive, you will find a way that works for you and it doesn't matter whether it works for anyone else." Darren Ritchie Darren Ritchie (born in 1975 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish long jumper. He finished fourth at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, missing the bronze medal with a one centimetre margin. , who is jumps events manager at Scottish Athletics, said: "This is a historic opportunity for our Scottish coaches and athletes to meet the person who has revolutionised the high jump. "During our development weekends we have looked at the high jump technique used in major championships and that obviously includes the Fosbury Flop. "It is going to be great to actually meet the athlete who invented the technique." CAPTION(S): Back to the future: Dick goes for gold in Mexico with revolutionary technique High achiever: Dick made history |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion