In the world of high jumping there is before October 20, 1968, and there is after. Fosbury won gold that day at the Mexico Olympics, stunning the crowd with what had now been (nonderisively) dubbed the Fosbury Flop. Before him, no Olympic jumper had faced skyward. After him, all world record holders did. The power of Fosbury’s technique lay not only in its solid mechanical foundation but in its uniqueness.
